9^WB35 


in  the  ®itit  of  %U%xi  ^]orh 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 


THE    STORY    OF    A 
SOLDIER'S    LIFE 


BY 

FIELD-MARSHAL   VISCOUNT   WOLSELEY 

O.M.,  K.P.,  G.C.B.,  G.C.M.G.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D 


mm    PHOrOGRAFURE    PORTRAIT    AND    PLANS 


SECOND    IMPRESSION 


VOLUME  II 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

I53-»S7»    FIFTH    AVENUE 
1904 


BUTLER  &  Tanner. 

The  selwood  printing  works, 

Fromb,  and  London. 


PREFACE 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  tried  to  record  the 
noble  actions  I  have  witnessed,  and  to  describe  the  men 
I  have  been  associated  with.  I  have  set  down  nought 
in  malice,  and  therefore  beg  my  readers  to  forgive  what 
may  be   my  prejudices, 

WOLSELEY,   F.M. 

Farm  House 

Glynde 
September  14,   1903 


437899 


TO 
THE    RT.    HONOURABLE 

LORD   MOUNT-STEPHEN. 

I    DEDICATE    THESE    VOLUMES    OF    VARIED    EXPERIENCES 

TO    YOU    WHO    FOR    FORTY    YEARS    HAVE 

GIVEN    ME    YOUR    UNVARYING 

FRIENDSHIP. 


Vll 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.'  PAGE 

XXVII     China  War  of  i860            .....  i 

XXVIII     Chusan  and  Pootoo  :  Talienwan  Bay,  i860      .  11 

XXIX     Army  Lands  at  Peh-Tang,  August  i,  i860         ♦  23 

XXX     Chinese     Perfidy  —  Sir     Harry    Parkes    and 

OTHERS  Treacherously  taken  Prisoners     ,  58 

XXXI     Surrender  of  Pekin         .  .  .         .  .72 

XXXII    A  Visit  to  Japan,  i  860-1           ....  88 

XXXIII  The  Taiping  Rebellion,  1861    ....  94 

XXXIV  The  Trent  Affair — Ordered  to  Canada,  1861-2  10 1 

XXXV     Visit  to  the  Confederate  Army    1862    .         •  i  17 

XXXVI     Reorganization    of    the    Canadian    Militia, 

1864-s       • 145 

ix 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XXXVII     Attempted  Fenian  Invasion  of  Canada  in  1866  152 

XXXVIII     The  Red  River  Expedition  of  1870      .         .  165 

XXXIX    The   Lakes,    Rivers    and    Wilderness   to  be 

Traversed,  1870     .....  181 

XL     Hear    of    the    Emperor    Louis     Napoleon's 

Downfall         ......  199 

XLI    Army  Reform  begun  in  Earnest,  1871    .         .  226 

XLII     Lord   Airey,   Lord    Northbrook,    Mr.    Card- 
well,  187 1-3        ......  239 

XLIII     The  Ashantee  War  of  1873-4  .  .         .  257 

XLIV    War  Service  on  the  Gold  Coast,  1873-4         .  274 

XLV    Cape  Coast  Castle  and  its  Slave  Pens  .  .  288 

XL VI    Ashantee  Attack  upon  Abrakrampa         .         .  303 

XL VII    Sir  George  Colley 317 

XLVIII    The  Ashantee  War 330 

XLIX    The  Enemy  Attack  our  Line  of  Communica- 
tions   ........  346 

L    Our  Habitual  Unpreparedness  for  War         .  371 

X 


CONTENTS 

PLANS 

PAGE 

China:   Operations  between  ist  and  2ist  August,  i860 

to  face       23 
Advance   of   Allied   Armies    from   Peh-Tang  to  Pekin, 

i860 to  face      54 

Route  of  Red  River  Expeditionary  Force,  1870       „        165 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Major-General  Sir  J.  Hope  Grant,  K.C.B.         .      Frontispiece 
Fort  Garry  [From  a  contemporary  engraving)       .         .         .219 


XI 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

China  War  of  i860 

IN  my  narrative  of  the  events  of  1857  I  mentioned 
that  we  had  despatched  troops  to  China  early  in 
that  year  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  our  claims  against 
its  Government.  When  the  Bengal  Mutiny  broke  out, 
however,  those  regiments  were  diverted  from  the  Canton 
River  to  the  Hooghly,  my  battalion  being  one  of  them. 

Our  relations  with  the  Pekin  Government  had  not  im- 
proved during  the  years  1857,  1858  and  1859.  Being 
then  seriously  engaged  in  India,  we  were  compelled  to  play 
a  "  waiting  game "  in  China,  and  to  content  ourselves 
with  some  insignificant  military  operations  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Canton,  of  which  city  we  took  possession. 
By  the  end  of  1859  we  had  put  down  the  Bengal  Mutiny. 
We  had  re-established  our  supremacy  from  the  Himalayas 
to  the  Camatic,  and  could  at  last  spare  sufficient  troops 
to  bring  his  Tartar  Majesty  of  Pekin  to  reason. 

Sir  Hope  Grant's  staff  were  naturally  anxious  he  should 
be  selected  to  command  in  the  coming  war,  for  we  hoped 
and  expected  he  would  take  us  with  him  to  Pekin.  The 
only  other  man  we  could  think  of  as  being  a  serious  com- 
petitor was  Sir  William  Mansfield,  whom  the  Army  disliked 
extremely.  His  natural  ability  was  undoubted,  but  it  was 
not  of  the  character  that  suffices  to  make  a  great  military 

VOL.    II.  I  B 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

leader,  and  he  was  known  to  be  too  short-sighted  for 
practical  work  in  the  field.  We  assumed  he  would  make 
every  effort  to  obtain  the  chief  command  in  this  coming 
war,  and  that  Lord  Clyde  would  feel  bound  to  support 
him  in  doing  so.  As  we  afterwards  ascertained,  both  Lord 
Clyde  and  Lord  Canning  supported  his  candidature,  but 
His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  then  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  very  wisely,  I  think,  preferred  Sir 
Hope  Grant. 

About  Christmas,  1859,  news  reached  Lucknow  that 
the  Home  Government  had  at  last  decided  upon  sending 
an  expeditionary  force  of  some  10,000  men  to  China  with 
that  object  in  view.  The  Emperor  Napoleon  III,  being 
anxious  to  co-operate,  it  was  arranged  that  he  should 
send  a  French  contingent  of  7,000  men  under  General 
Montauban,  who  was  then  highly  thought  of  in  France.^ 

There  is  no  nation,  numerically  as  great  as  China,  whose 
customs  and  modes  of  life  are  so  generally  common  to 
aU  parts  of  their  vast  empire.  To  me  they  are  the  most 
remarkable  race  on  earth,  and  I  have  always  thought 
and  still  believe  them  to  be  the  great  coming  rulers  of  the 
world.  They  only  want  a  Chinese  Peter  the  Great  or 
Napoleon  to  make  them  so.  They  have  every  quality 
required  for  the  good  soldier  and  the  good  sailor,  and 
in  my  idle  speculation  upon  this  world's  future  I  have 
long  selected  them  as  the  combatants  on  one  side  at 
the  great  Battle  of  Armageddon,  the  people  of  the 
United  States  of  America  being  their  opponents.  The 
latter  nation  is  fast  becoming  the  greatest  power  of  the 

^  Our  quota  was  afterwards  increased  to  13,000.  But  the  force 
eventually  landed  at  Pehtang  the  beginning  of  August,  i860,  con- 
sisted of  1 1,000  British  and  6,500  French  troops. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    CHINA    WAR    OF  i860 

world.  Thank  Heaven,  they  speak  Enghsh,  are  governed 
by  an  Enghsh  system  of  laws,  and  profess  the  same  regard 
that  we  have  for  what  both  understand  by  fair  play  in 
all  national  as  well  as  in  all  private  business. 

The  origin  of  the  China  War  can  be  stated  in  a  few  sen- 
tences. Lord  Elgin  had  patched  up  a  treaty  of  peace  with 
the  Celestial  Empire  in  1858,  and  in  accordance  with  its 
provisions  we  were  entitled  to  have  a  resident  Minister 
in  Pekin.  This  was  generally  thought  to  be  the  most 
important  of  the  concessions  we  had  obtained,  and  we 
were  consequently  anxious  to  take  advantage  of  it.  But 
to  the  Chinese  rulers  it  was  the  most  objectionable  clause 
in  that  treaty.  They  had  agreed  to  it  on  paper,  but  it 
was  evident  from  the  first  that  they  never  meant  to  allow 
us  to  take  advantage  of  it.  Had  any  worldly  wisdom 
directed  Pekin  diplomacy  at  this  epoch,  instead  of  flouting 
us,  the  emperor  would  have  grappled  us  to  him  with  "  hooks 
of  steel  "  by  conceding  all  the  just  demands  we  had  made 
upon  him  and  his  people.  They  would  have  tried  to  make 
friends  of  us  in  order  to  induce  us  to  help  them  against 
the  Tai-ping  rebels,  with  whom  they  were  themselves 
unable  to  cope.  In  May  and  June  the  aspect  of  affairs 
at  Canton  had  already  become  serious  for  the  Pekin  Govern- 
ment owing  to  this  rebel  movement.  The  most  stupid 
amongst  them  should  have  realized  that  any  attack  made 
by  us  in  the  north  of  China  would  necessarily  be  of  great 
help  to  the  rebel  cause  in  every  province.  The  emperor 
was  unable  even  to  drive  from  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  Valley 
the  Canton  cooly  who  had  set  himself  up  at  Nankin  under 
the  assumed  title  of  "  Tien  wan,"  or  "  The  Heavenly 
King "  ;  and  yet  his  Ministers  deliberately  acted  in  a 
manner  that  left  us  no  alternative  except  a  declaration 

3 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

of  war !  The  Government  of  Pekin,  ever  since  we  have 
had  any  dealings  with  it  down  to  the  present  day,  has 
always  displayed  a  clever  cunning  in  small  matters  of 
professional  diplomacy.  But  as  regards  the  treatment 
of  all  affairs  of  great  international  importance  to  them 
and  to  us,  they  have  invariably  acted  as  if  they  were  idiots. 
Their  rule  is  only  to  concede  when  concession  has  become 
unavoidable,  and  they  are  often  unwise  enough  to  refuse 
demands  which  common  international  custom  recognizes 
as  a  matter  of  course.  It  was  conduct  of  this  nature  that 
drove  us,  much  against  our  wish,  into  this  war.  In  fact, 
they  brought  upon  themselves  our  occupation  of  Pekin 
and  the  destruction  of  the  Summer  Palace.  They  are 
an  inconsequent  people,  and  it  would  seem  as  if  their  rulers 
never  can  learn  wisdom  from  experience.  If  in  the  future 
they  ever  do  so  learn  wisdom,  they  ought  to  become  the 
most  powerful  nation  upon  earth. 

Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  then  our  Minister  in  China,  an- 
nounced to  the  Imperial  authorities  that  he  meant  to  pro- 
ceed, via  the  Taku  forts,  to  Pekin,  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
up  his  official  residence  there,  in  accordance  with  the  pro- 
visions of  our  recent  treaty.  Shortly  after  this  announce- 
ment he  proceeded  to  the  Gulf  of  Pecheli  with  a  fleet  under 
the  command  of  Admiral  Sir  James  Hope,  a  first-rate 
officer  and  the  bravest  of  brave  sailors.  When,  with 
several  gunboats,  he  attempted  to  enter  the  Pei-Ho,  the 
Chinese  opened  a  heavy  artillery  fire  upon  him  from  the 
Taku  Forts  at  the  mouth  of  that  river. 

With  more  hardihood  than  wisdom  our  admiral,  not 
content  with  returning  this  fire,  landed  a  considerable 
body  of  marines  and  bluejackets  on  the  deep  mud  which 
lay  between  the  river  and  the  most  important  of  the  forts 

4 


SIR  HOPE  GRANT  AS  A  GENERAL 

on  its  right  or  southern  bank.  The  attempt  ended  in 
disaster,  and  the  landing  party  had  to  return  to  their  ships, 
having  suffered  heavily.  Sir  James  Hope  being  himself 
amongst  the  wounded.  I  have  been  told  by  men  who  were 
there  that  his  cool  courage  was  remarkable  even  amongst 
the  brave  men  around  him.  When  one  gunboat  was  sunk 
under  him,  he  went  on  board  another  and  hoisted  his  flag 
there.  I  believe  he  was  obliged  to  do  this  twice,  two  gun- 
boats bearing  his  flag  having  been  sunk  one  after  the  other. 
In  this  unfortunate  affair  four  of  our  gunboats  and  one 
gun  vessel  were  sunk,  and  our  total  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  throughout  the  day  was  about  500  of  all  ranks. 
This  very  serious  repulse  made  war  inevitable,  and  we 
entered  upon  it  with  the  least  possible  delay. 

In  accordance  with  orders  from  home.  Lord  Clyde  had 
been  told  to  select  the  general  to  command  in  the  coming 
campaign,  and  also  the  officers  required  for  the  staff  work 
in  connexion  with  it.  He  wisely  made  choice  of  General 
Sir  Hope  Grant,  who  had  distinguished  himself  upon  all 
occasions  when  engaged  during  the  great  Indian  Mutiny. 

Sir  Hope  Grant's  military  instinct,  mellowed  by  war's 
experience,  invariably  prompted  him  correctly.  A  sol- 
dier and  a  daring  leader  of  men,  he  possessed  keen,  bright 
views  upon  war  in  all  its  many  phases.  He  was  a  man 
of  strong  opinions  and  with  plenty  of  ideas — and  good 
ones  too — but  either  from  faults  of  education  or  want  of 
practice  in  putting  his  views  into  words,  he  could  not 
always  clearly  describe  to  others  what  it  was  he  wanted 
done.  There  were  men  who,  jealous  of  his  invariable 
success  and  of  his  great  popularity  in  the  army,  heartily 
disliked  him,  and  consequently  took  a  pleasure  in  belittHng 
his  capacity  and  in  describing  him  as  "  puzzle-headed." 

5 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

But  they  were  by  no  means  the  best  officers,  nor  were  they 
ever  hkely  themselves  to  be  leaders  of  armies.  Honour- 
able deahng  between  man  and  man  was  in  him  intuitive. 
His  faith  in  an  all-seeing  God,  who  watched  over  soldiers, 
was  as  the  very  hfe  within  him.  His  rehgion  was  of  the 
simplest  nature,  though  it  was  an  all-powerful  force  that 
influenced  aU  he  did  and  aU  he  said.  He  tried  to  serve 
God  with  aU  his  might,  but  detested  priestly  dogmas  and 
the  sophisms  of  theology.  Death  had  no  horror  for  him  : 
it  would  only  come  at  the  time  God  had  appointed  for  it. 
A  young  aide-de-camp,  to  whom  he  was  much  attached, 
went  to  see  him  shortly  before  his  death,  and  breaking 
down  upon  seeing  the  already  paUid  face  of  the  general 
he  loved,  he  burst  into  tears.  Sir  Hope  said  to  him  in 
his  usual  cheery  way  :  "  Oh,  my  dear  boy,  to  die  is  nothing  ; 
it  is  only  going  from  one  room  into  another."  So  it  was 
to  him  then,  and  had  always  been  in  action,  where  no 
thought  of  personal  danger  ever  seemed  to  occur  to  him. 
Upon  many  an  occasion  (when  in  action)  those  about  him 
remonstrated  with  him  upon  his  recklessness,  he  would 
laughingly  concede  the  point  and  admit  he  was  wTong, 
but  within  a  few  minutes  afterwards  he  was  again  in  quite 
as  exposed  a  position. 

When  Sir  Hope  Grant  was  informed  he  had  been  selected 
to  command  in  the  war  we  were  about  to  enter  upon  in 
China,  I  was  Quarter-Master-General  of  the  Gudh  Division 
which  he  then  commanded.  I  was  a  brevet  lieutenant- 
colonel,  and  had  already  seen  much  active  service.  Sir 
Hope  wished  to  take  me  with  him  to  China  as  his  Quarter- 
Master-General,  but  Lord  Clyde  did  not  approve,  and  I 
think  he  was  right,  for  I  had  not  had  the  experience  re- 
quired for  such  a  position.     He  selected  a  much  better 

6 


EMBARK    FOR    CHINA 

man  in  every  way  for  it — Colonel  "  Jock "  Mackenzie,  of 
the  Gordon  Highlanders.  No  man  knew  the  army  more 
thoroughly,  and  no  one  in  it  was  more  conversant  with 
the  duties  of  the  office  he  was  selected  for,  especially  in 
connexion  with  the  embarkation  of  troops,  in  dealing  with 
the  navy,  and  in  the  feeding  and  housing  of  an  army. 
He  was  also  in  every  sense  a  thorough  soldier,  and  the 
dearest  and  best  of  friends.  His  assistant  was  to  be  Colonel 
Robert  Ross,  of  the  Argyle  and  Sutherland  Highlanders, 
who  had  serv^ed  under  him  at  Balaclava  in  that  same  position, 
and  I  was  to  be  the  third  man  of  the  department.  I  had 
much  to  learn,  and  it  was  consequently  of  great  advantage 
to  me  that  I  was  to  serve  under  two  such  able  and  ex- 
perienced staff  officers,  by  whom  I  was  sure  to  be  weU 
taught.  They  were  both  old  Crimean  comrades  of  mine, 
who  I  knew  thought  weU  of  me,  and  both  were  far  older 
and  had  much  greater  army  experience  than  I  had. 

Sir  Hope  Grant  selected  Lieutenant,  now  General,  Sir 
Robert  Biddulph,  to  be  his  military  secretary.  He  had 
been  for  some  time  on  his  staff  as  adjutant-general  of  the 
Oudh  Division.  If  I  may  presume  to  say  so  of  an  old 
comrade  who  is  still  alive,  he  was  a  first-rate  man  all  round 
for  that  difficult  and  dehcate  position.  No  man  could 
have  filled  it  better. 

We  all  embarked  in  the  steamer  Fiery  Cross  at  Calcutta, 
and  landed  at  Hong  Kong  March  13,  i860.  During  the 
voyage  all  of  us  read  every  available  book  upon  China  ; 
I  also  played  a  good  deal  of  chess  with  Augustus  Anson, 
my  old  tent  companion  during  our  campaigns  in  Oudh. 
I  had  been  a  chess  player  ever  since  I  was  a  small  boy, 
and  played  fairly  well.  Sir  Hope  Grant,  though  a  man 
of  fifty-two  years  of  age,  entered  into  all  our  boyish  amuse- 

7 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

ments.  He  was  a  first-rate  "  cock-fighter,"  and  beat  us 
all  at  that  game,  and  no  one  enjoyed  the  rough  play  of 
"  High  Cock-a-Lorum  "  more  than  he  did.  We  were  all 
very  fond  of  him,  and  those  who,  like  myself,  knew  him 
well,  had  a  real  affection  for  him.  We  took  a  delight  in  his 
daring  courage,  his  indifference  to  self,  and  were  proud 
to  have  him  as  our  leader  in  the  war  we  were  about  to 
undertake. 

What  a  busy  place  Hong  Kong  then  was.  Its  fine 
roadstead  became  day  by  day  more  crowded  with  trans- 
ports, and  its  streets  swarmed  with  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  officers  ashore  for  the  day  to  see  what  John  Chinaman 
had  for  sale.  Every  one  in  the  Quarter-Master-General's 
department  was  busy  from  early  morning  to  hot,  dry  eve. 
We  had  just  negotiated  for  the  purchase  of  some  land  on 
the  mainland,  a  promontory  called  Kowloon,  suited  for 
camping  purposes.  There  was  no  land  on  the  island  of 
Hong-Kong  itself  where  troops  could  be  put  under  canvas, 
and  very  little  good  drinking  water  was  to  be  found  upon 
its  granite  and  freestone  hills. 

Captain,  now  Sir  Peter  Lumsden,  one  of  our  ablest 
Indian  staff  ofiicers  and  I,  were  ordered  to  sketch  the 
ground  at  Kowloon  that  was  required  for  camping  pur- 
poses. It  is  now  part  of  our  Hong  Kong  territory.  There, 
all  of  us  who  had  come  from  India,  saw  for  the  first  time 
some  practice  with  our  new  Armstrong  breechloading 
guns.  Their  range  and  accuracy  delighted  us,  and  all 
regretted  we  had  not  possessed  them  during  the  Mutiny. 
We  laughed  as  we  thought  how  they  would  tickle-up  poor 
John  Chinaman  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Pekin. 

It  had  already  begun  to  be  warm  in  Calcutta  when  we 
embarked  there,   and  we  were  consequently  incUned  all 

a 


HONG    KONG    AND    CANTON 

the  more  to  enjoy  the  refreshing  breeze  of  the  north-east 
monsoon  during  our  stay  at  Hong  Kong. 

Canton  was  then  in  our  mihtary  occupation,  and  I 
thoroughly  enjoyed  the  trip  I  made  to  see  it.  When  we 
took  possession  of  it,  we  captured  the  Chinese  mandarin 
who  governed  it  and  the  surrounding  province.  He  was 
a  cruel  brute,  without  any  regard  for  human  life,  and 
ruled  by  fear.  Asked  by  an  English  officer  if  it  were  true 
that  he  had  that  year  executed  60,000  men,  he  thought 
for  a  moment,  and  then  said  :  "  Oh  !  I  beheaded  far  more 
than  that."  We  found  in  the  city  many  walled-in  yards 
filled  with  the  skulls  of  those  he  had  beheaded. 

Practically  we  knew  little  and  could  not  find  out  much 
about  the  north  of  China.  Hitherto  all  the  warlike  opera- 
tions we  had  ever  carried  on  in  the  country  were  confined 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  Canton,  Shanghai  and  the  Chussan 
group  of  islands.  As  usual,  our  most  difficult  problem 
was  the  provision  of  enough  suitable  land  transport.  We 
raised  an  excellent  Cooly  Corps,  which  did  us  first-rate 
service  throughout  the  ensuing  campaign.  Plucky,  cheery 
and  very  strong  carriers  they  were,  easily  fed  and  easily 
commanded.  We  obtained  good  muleteers  from  Manilla 
and  bullock  drivers  from  Madras  and  Bombay.  All  our 
Eastern  possessions  were  in  fact  laid  under  contribution 
for  camp  followers  of  various  sorts. 

Our  military  force  available  for  operations  in  the  north 
embraced  some  regiments  of  Bengal  Pandies  and  of  Madras 
and  Bombay  Sepoys.  What  poor  creatures  they  looked 
when  seen  side  by  side  with  the  men  of  our  other  native 
regiments  drawn  from  the  fighting  tribes  of  Northern 
India,  the  wild  Pathans,  the  tall  stubborn  Sikhs,  and  the 
proud  Punjaubee  Mussulmans.    The  embarkation  and  the 

9 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

provisioning  of  these  various  creeds  for  the  voyage  to  the 
Gulf  of  Pechelee  was  no  easy  task,  and  gave  full  occupation 
to  all  the  officers  of  the  Quarter-Master-General's  depart- 
ment. 


10 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
Chusan  and  Pootoo — Talienwan  Bay,  i860 

ON  March  8,  i860,  our  Minister  at  Shanghai  had  sent 
an  ultimatum  to  the  Pekin  Government,  in  which 
he  detailed  what  had  taken  place  when  he  had  last  en- 
deavoured, in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  our  treaty, 
to  land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pei-Ho  River  for  the  purpose 
of  proceeding  to  Pekin.  Having  described  those  events, 
he  went  on  to  say  that  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment required  the  absolute  and  unconditional  acceptance 
of  the  following  terms  :  An  ample  and  satisfactory  apology 
for  having  fired  upon  our  ships  from  the  Taku  forts,  and 
the  return  of  all  the  guns  and  ships  we  had  abandoned 
upon  that  occasion ;  the  ratification  of  our  Treaty  of  Tien- 
tsin to  be  exchanged  without  delay  at  Pekin,  to  which 
city  our  Minister  would  proceed,  going  up  the  Pei-Ho 
River  in  a  British  vessel,  etc.,  etc.  ;  the  payment  of  an 
indemnity  for  the  injury  we  had  received  when  our  gun- 
boats attempted  to  enter  the  Pei-Ho  River,  etc.,  etc.  ; 
the  last  and  most  important  clause  was  that  unless  we 
received  within  thirty  days  of  the  date  of  our  letter  an 
unqualified  acceptance  of  those  terms,  we  should  compel 
the  emperor  to  observe  the  engagements  he  had  entered 
into  at  Tien-tsin,  and  which  he  had  approved  by  his  edict 
of  July,  1858. 

II 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

The  reply  arrived  a  couple  of  days  before  the  time  we 
had  fixed  as  the  limit  within  which  it  was  to  reach  us.  It 
came  from  the  Chinese  Commissioners  at  Shanghai,  and 
not  from  the  Great  Council  at  Pekin,  as  it  should  have  done 
had  the  Imperial  Court  conceded  to  us  the  right  we  claimed  of 
being  treated  by  them  as  equals.  On  all  other  points  also 
their  answer  to  our  demands  was  so  unsatisfactory  that 
Sir  Hope  Grant  and  General  Montauban  determined  to 
begin  operations  at  once  by  landing  troops  upon  the  Island 
of  Chusan.  This  was  a  movement  that  had  been  directed 
from  home,  and  a  very  stupid  and  useless  one  it  was,  for 
the  Chinese  Government  attached  little  importance  to 
it.  The  French  and  English  fleets  proceeded  there  forth- 
with, carrjdng  a  British  infantry  brigade,  some  artillery 
and  engineers,  etc.,  etc.  The  French  sent  a  couple  of 
hundred  marines  to  represent  their  army  upon  this  ex- 
pedition. Sir  Hope  Grant  was  to  command.  General 
Montauban  remaining  at  Shanghai.  I  accompanied  Sir 
Hope  in  the  Grenada,  the  ship  we  had  hired  from  the  P.  &  O. 
Company  to  be  Army  Headquarters  whilst  the  war  lasted. 

In  our  previous  war  of  1848-9  with  China  we  had  occupied 
Tinghai,  the  capital  town  of  Chusan,  and  had  retained 
possession  of  it  for  a  couple  of  years.  We  now  anchored 
off  that  city  and  sent  a  flag  of  truce  ashore  to  demand 
its  surrender.     This  was  at  once  conceded. 

Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Harry  Parkes,  an  able,  daring  and 
very  remarkable  man,  who  spoke  Chinese  fluently,  had 
drafted  a  proclamation  to  be  posted  up  in  Tinghai  and  in 
all  the  neighbouring  towns,  announcing  our  intended 
occupation  of  the  islands,  etc.,  etc.  In  it  he  had  referred 
to  the  previous  "  British  Occupation."  Our  sensitive 
allies  asked  us  to  change  the  expression  to  "  European 

12 


CHUSAN 

Occupation,"  which  was  done  as  a  matter  of  course  to 
please  them.  They  did  not  wish  it  to  be  officially  remem- 
bered that  we  had  ever  made  war  in  the  Flowery  Land 
without  their  assistance.  How  unlike  us  rude  Britishers 
they  are  in  all  such  matters  ! 

A  guard  of  fifty  English  soldiers  and  a  like  number  of 
French  marines  landed  and  took  possession  of  the  city, 
our  detachment  being  quartered  in  an  old  stone  building 
we  had  erected  as  a  hospital  during  our  former  occupa- 
tion of  the  island. 

The  Union  Jack  and  the  French  tricolour  were  hoisted 
side  by  side.  Unfortunately  the  spar  from  which  our 
flag  flew  was  a  few  feet  higher  than  the  old  Joss  pole  upon 
which  that  of  France  appeared.  This  could  not  be  allowed, 
so  a  party  of  sailors  from  a  French  man-of-war  soon  ap- 
peared with  a  spar  still  higher  than  ours.  Had  we  been 
nationally  sensitive  upon  such  a  point  we  might  have 
"  gone  one  better,"  until  the  Tower  of  Babel  would  have 
been  but  a  tiny  erection  in  comparison  with  the  height 
of  those  competing  flag-staffs. 

Here  in  Chusan,  as  is  generally  to  be  found  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  China,  literally  every  perch  of 
land  was  cultivated  and  grew  something  that  meant,  in 
one  shape  or  other,  food  for  man.  With  this  object  in 
view,  all  classes  are  very  careful  in  the  collection  of  every 
species  of  manure  that  could  fertilize  their  land.  Even 
the  narrow  ridges  which  bound  the  canals  were  planted 
with  beans  and  other  vegetables.  Clover  and  barley 
covered  every  suitable  slope,  whilst  the  ground  that  could 
be  irrigated  was  rich  with  waving  barley  and  brightly 
green  with  young  rice.  The  steep  and  rugged  hills  were 
terraced  everywhere  to  admit  of  cultivation,  and  the  spots 

13 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

whose  apparent  sterility  or  very  steep  declivities  forbid 
all  hope  of  crops  were  used  as  cemeteries.  I  must  not 
call  them  places  of  burial,  for  except  in  the  rich  families, 
John  Chinaman  does  not  usually  either  bum  or  bury  his 
dead  friends  or  parents.  His  custom  is  to  place  them 
in  strong  substantial  coffins,  rectangular  in  shape,  upon 
spots  outside  of  cities,  spots  usually  selected  because  of 
their  otherwise  valueless  nature. 

Tinghai,  like  most  cities  in  China,  was  walled  round, 
and  was  said  to  have  30,000  inhabitants.  It  contained 
the  usual  temples,  rich,  inside  especially,  with  bright  colours 
and  good  wood  carving.  Having  been  lately  accustomed 
to  the  fiat,  ugly  banks  of  the  Woosung  and  Yang-tse-Kiang 
rivers,  the  scenery  around  the  city  gratified  and  soothed 
us  with  its  varied  shapes  and  colours.  I  carried  away  a 
pleasing  remembrance  of  the  place  where  Sir  Colin  Camp- 
bell, with  his  battalion,  had  so  long  been  quartered  during 
our  first  China  war. 

From  Chusan  we  steamed  to  the  sacred  island  of  Poo-too, 
which  lies  eastward  of  and  close  to  the  Chusan  group.  It 
is  regarded  by  all  Buddhists  as  a  very  sacred  place,  and 
like  the  promontory  of  Mount  Athos,  no  women  are  allowed 
to  land  upon  it.  Thousands  of  pilgrims  from  all  parts 
of  the  empire  flock  there  annually  in  the  early  spring,  and 
again  at  the  end  of  summer. 

We  were  kindly  received  by  the  chief  priest  or  abbot 
of  the  place,  and  were  shown  over  all  its  temples  and  build- 
ings. The  wood-carving  everywhere,  though  grotesque, 
was  artistic  and  very  good,  but  the  roofs  of  several  temples 
were  sadly  in  want  of  repair.  There  were  some  finely 
ornamented  bronze  bells  and  gongs  and  immense  urns, 
and  also  some  parchment-covered  drums  scattered  about 

14 


THE    SACRED    ISLAND    OF    POO-TOO 

the  open  courtyards.  Everywhere  the  eye  fell  upon  moral 
precepts  painted  on  prominent  rocks  or  richly  carved 
on  screens  of  hard  wood,  and  everything  was  decorated 
with  representations  of  the  "  Imperial  Dragon."  The 
two  written  characters  most  common  in  aU  the  buildings 
were  those  which  represent  "  happiness  "  and  "  longevity." 
In  every  temple  was  a  statue  of  the  Goddess  of  Mercy, 
who  is,  as  it  were,  the  patron  saint  of  the  place.  The 
smell  of  burnt  joss-stick  pervaded  every  building,  and  in 
each  was  a  notice  forbidding  the  faithful  to  smoke  within 
those  sacred  precincts.  I  there  saw  for  the  only  time  in 
my  life  a  Buddhist  priest  in  that  condition  of  spiritual 
abstraction  which  lengthened  contemplation  of  holy  sub- 
jects and  deep  meditations  upon  the  Supreme  Deity  is 
said  to  induce.  The  man  whilst  in  that  condition  is  sup- 
posed to  have  lost  his  human  identity,  and  to  have  become 
for  the  time  being  an  integral  portion  of  the  Supreme 
God  Himself.  The  priest  whom  I  saw  in  this  state  sat  in 
a  raised  niche  of  the  great  gate  into  the  principal  building. 
I  watched  him  in  silence  and  somewhat  in  awe  for  certainly 
over  five  minutes,  during  which  time  he  never  moved  or 
winked  his  eyelids,  whilst  his  eyeballs,  glazed  over  as  it 
were  with  a  film,  looked  hard  and  metallic,  and  seemed 
to  be  absolutely  sightless.  He  never  moved  a  muscle 
of  his  face  or  body  as  I  watched  him,  and  if  he  were  not 
in  an  actual  trance,  he  certainly  was  an  accomplished 
actor. 

There  was  at  places  a  profusion  of  azaleas,  peonies  and 
other  flowering  shrubs.  One  of  the  three  great  temples 
of  the  island  stood  in  a  splendid  grove  of  white  camellia 
trees  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  in  height.  All  were 
covered  with  blossoms,  the  fallen  petals  of  which  strewed 

15 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

the  ground  beneath.  It  was  a  lovely  spot,  and  500  men 
might  have  encamped  beneath  those  tall,  stately  trees. 
On  the  whole,  had  it  been  desirable  to  have  formed  a  sana- 
torium an5rwhere  during  the  war,  Sir  Hope  Grant  would 
have  done  so  upon  this  island  of  Poo-too,  whose  buildings 
of  aU  sorts  would  have  provided  accommodation  for  about 
2,000  men.  Had  this  been  done,  he  would  have  trans- 
ferred to  the  mainland  the  few  old  priests  who  were  the 
only  permanent  residents  on  the  island.  Having  spent 
this  one  day,  April  24,  i860,  at  Poo-too,  we  steamed  away 
south  for  Hong  Kong. 

About  the  middle  of  May,  i860,  our  little  army  began 
to  embark  at  Hong  Kong  for  the  Gulf  of  Pecheli.  It  con- 
sisted of  two  infantry  divisions  and  of  one  cavalry  brigade, 
with  four  batteries  of  field,  one  of  horse  artillery,  and  one 
of  mountain  guns,  besides  a  small  siege  train  of  heavy 
artiUery,  the  total  strength  of  all  ranks  being  14,000.  It 
was  carried  in  120  hired  transports,  and  was  accompanied 
by  a  fleet  of  seventy  pennants,  gunboats  included.  I  do 
not  think  that  England  had  ever  before  begun  a  war  with 
so  well  organized  an  army.  It  was  small,  but  nothing 
that  could  add  to  the  health  and  comfort  of  our  troops, 
or  to  their  efficiency  as  a  fighting  body,  had  been  neglected. 

On  our  way  north  Sir  Hope  Grant  called  in  at  Shanghai, 
where  we  found  every  one  in  a  state  of  panic.  The  rebels 
had  lately  captured  the  rich  city  of  Soochow,  and  were 
then  moving  steadily  towards  Shanghai,  which  they  an- 
nounced their  intention  to  take  at  all  hazards.  The 
Chinese  merchants  were  already  flying  from  the  place  with 
their  goods  and  families.  Most  of  the  shops  in  the  native 
city  were  closed,  and  where  it  was  usual  to  find  a  large 
fleet  of  trading  junks,  scarcely  one  of  any  size  remained. 

16 


SHANGHAI 

All  trade  had  ceased,  and  alarm  prevailed  in  all  the  country 
round.  The  European  merchants  realized  the  danger  of 
the  position,  and  at  their  request  a  battalion  of  marines 
was  landed  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property,  to  which 
a  regiment  of  Sikhs  and  another  of  Punjaubees  were  subse- 
quently added. 

The  governor-general  of  the  province,  a  gentleman 
named  Ho,  now  made  to  us  the  oddest  request  which  the 
ruler  of  an  invaded  territory  had,  I  presume,  ever  ad- 
dressed to  his  enemy.  He  begged  us  to  land  and  march 
upon  Soochow  and  retake  it  for  the  emperor.  He  was 
kind  enough  to  add  that  if  we  did  this,  he  would  inform 
his  celestial  master  of  the  valuable  services  we  had  ren- 
dered, and  he  had  no  doubt  that,  as  a  reward  for  those 
services,  we  should  be  granted  all  we  asked  ! 

Three  days'  steaming  took  us  from  Shanghai  to  the 
Gulf  of  Pecheli,  where  we  at  once  proceeded  to  examine 
the  localities  selected  as  the  respective  rendezvous  of  the 
tvv^o  allied  forces.  That  selected  by  the  French  was  Che-foo, 
a  small  walled  city  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  sea, 
and  on  the  western  shore  of  the  gulf.  The  bay  upon  which 
it  stood  was  small,  but  large  enough  for  our  ally's  small  force. 
There  was  not  an  over  abundant  supply  of  fresh  water,  but 
it  was  sufficient  for  all  the  French  requirements.  The  land 
around,  as  usual  in  all  parts  of  China,  was  well  cultivated. 
The  inhabitants  were  then  busy  gathering  in  the  harvest, 
and  preparing  the  land  for  other  crops.  No  rice  is  grown 
so  far  north.  At  one  place  I  saw  two  donkeys  with  a  bul- 
lock between  them  yoked  to  a  plough  !  The  French  pur- 
chased there  a  number  of  good  mules,  of  which  many  were 
to  be  found  in  the  neighbourhood.  Our  allies  were  busy 
in  putting  together  their  tiny  little  iron  gunboats  which 
VOL.  II.  17  c 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

had  come  from  France  as  freight,  each  in  fifteen  pieces. 
When  screwed  together  each  boat,  consisting  of  three 
water-tight  compartments,  carried  a  small  rifled  gun, 
but  they  were,  I  think,  more  ingenious  in  design  than 
practically  useful. 

According  to  arrangements  between  the  allied  com- 
manders, their  forces  were  to  be  ready  by  July  i  to  sail 
from  their  respective  rendezvous  in  the  Gulf  of  Pecheli. 

We  had  landed  our  troops  in  Talienwan  Bay,  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  gulf.  Good  fresh  water  was  nowhere 
plentiful,  and  as  we  had  a  brigade  of  cavalry,  and  all  our 
batteries  had  brought  their  horses  with  them,  we  required 
a  great  deal  of  it.  We  therefore  distributed  our  brigades 
at  several  points.  The  country  was  wild  and  hilly,  no 
trees  anywhere.  Well-flavoured  oysters  abounded  along 
the  rocky  seashore,  and  were  for  a  few  days  a  great  treat 
to  aU  ranks.  But  they  produced  such  serious  stomach 
aches  and  bowel  complaints,  that  their  use  had  to  be  dis- 
continued. 

By  printed  proclamations  distributed  broadcast  amongst 
the  villages,  we  assured  the  inhabitants  of  good  treatment, 
and  gave  information  to  those  who  felt  they  were  ill-treated 
how  they  should  act  in  order  to  obtain  redress.  When  our 
huge  fleet  first  arrived,  the  inhabitants  fled  inland,  but — 
the  women  excepted — all  returned  in  a  few  days.  We 
bought  their  eggs,  vegetables,  etc.,  etc.,  and  soon  restored 
confidence.  Our  only  difficulty  was  with  our  Chinese 
coolies,  who  were  incorrigible  plunderers.  We  flogged 
all  we  caught  thieving,  but  it  was  impossible  to  keep  them 
in  order. 

It  took  the  French  some  time  to  obtain  the  mules  they 
required  even  for  the  few  small  field  guns  they  had  with 

i8 


HEENAN    AND    SAYERS 

them.  Meanwhile  we  amused  ourselves  and  our  men  at 
Talienwan  Bay  as  best  we  could.  Numerous  excursions 
were  made  inland,  and  the  people  soon  became  accustomed 
to  see  us  amongst  them.  There  was,  however,  always 
an  apparent  dread  lest  we  should  at  any  moment  sud- 
denly develop  into  the  "  foreign  devils  "  they  even  still 
in  their  hearts  believed  us  to  be.  Every  village  had  its 
watchman  perched  upon  some  point  of  vantage  where  he 
could  see  all  approaching  strangers  from  afar,  and  thus 
give  warning  to  the  community  at  large. 

During  our  long  wait  for  the  French  in  Talienwan  Bay, 
we  received  the  news  of  the  celebrated  fight  between  Heenan 
and  Sayers.  It  had  been  the  one  common  topic  of  con- 
versation amongst  all  ranks  in  our  army  for  the  whole 
previous  month.  The  charming  French  officer  who  was 
attached  to  our  headquarter  staff  as  the  daily  means  of 
communication  between  the  two  allied  armies  said  he 
thought  we  had  all  run  mad.  That  any  civilized  modern 
army,  about  to  enter  upon  a  serious  war  in  an  unknown 
country  against  an  army  of  unknown  numbers,  should 
at  such  a  solemn  and  important  moment  take  an  all- 
absorbing  interest  in  the  result  of  a  vulgar  prize-fight 
was,  he  said,  beyond  any  foreigner's  philosophy.  I  re- 
member a  leading  article — I  think  it  was  in  the  Saturday 
Review — in  which  the  writer,  in  describing  the  intense 
interest  taken  at  home  in  this  fight,  said  that  if  upon  the 
morning  after  it  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  met 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  first  question  of  that  holy  man 
would  have  been,  "  What  do  you  think  of  the  fight  ?  " 

We  had  from  the  first  selected  Pehtang,  about  eight  miles 
due  north  of  the  Pei-Ho,  as  our  landing  place,  and  the 
French  general  commanding  had  fixed  upon  Chi-Kiang-ho 

19 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

as  the  place  of  disembarkation  for  his  army.^  But 
General  Montauban  now  asserted  it  would  not  suit  owing 
to  the  shallowness  of  its  waters.  We  suspicious  Britishers 
imagined  they  had  begun  to  think  that  their  army  was  too 
small  to  operate  far  away  from  us.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
after  several  conferences  between  the  two  generals  re- 
spectively in  command  of  the  "Allied  Armies,"  it  was 
decided,  to  the  regret  of  every  Englishman  present,  that 
the  two  forces  should  land  together  at  Pehtang.  We 
established  a  reserve  of  stores  at  the  camp  we  had  just 
quitted  in  Talienwan  Bay,  leaving  a  strong  detachment 
with  it  as  a  guard. 

On  July  20,  i860,  the  army  having  re-embarked,  our 
great  crowd  of  transports  started  under  the  protection 
of  Admiral  Sir  James  Hope's  fleet  of  war  ships.  All  were 
under  sail  in  two  lines,  each  line  being  led  by  a  frigate. 
All  told,  it  was  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-three 
British  ships.  The  French  fleet,  in  aU,  thirty-three  vessels, 
men-of-war  and  hired  transports,  joined  us  at  sea,  and 
formed  a  third  line.  It  was  the  greatest  number  of  ships 
I  ever  saw  under  sail  together  as  one  fleet,  and  was  a  mag- 
nificent spectacle,  never  to  be  forgotten.  It  was  no  mere 
naval  review  intended  to  amuse  Cowes  yachtsmen ;  it 
was  an  actual  fighting  reality  ;  a  man-of-war  fleet  con- 
voying a  huge  collection  of  transports  that  carried  an 
army  of  about  20,000  soldiers,  with  all  their  horses,  guns, 
fighting  material  and  food,  for  the  invasion  of  a  great  and 
ancient,  though  little  understood,  empire.  The  distant 
Chinese  capital,  the  far-famed  Pekin,  the  city  of  mystery 

1  The   distance   by   road    between    Pehtang    and    Pei-Ho   was 
twelve  miles. 

20 


ALLIED    RENDEZVOUS    NEAR    TAKU 

and  of  fable  to  all  the  yellow  race,  was  our  hoped-for 
destination. 

We  had  a  light  fair  wind,  which  sent  us  along  about 
five  knots  an  hour  over  a  calm  sea.  The  sun  shone  brightly 
upon  our  sails,  and  was  just  hot  enough  to  make  the  shade 
enjoyable,  the  sky  was  clear  and  blue.  Altogether,  the 
colour  and  form,  the  light  and  shadow,  and  the  sunlight 
on  a  sea  crowded  with  sail-covered  ships,  made  up  a  beautiful 
scene,  a  picture  it  is  indeed  a  pleasure  to  recall.  Who 
present  could  wish  to  be  elsewhere  ? 

We  anchored  the  day  following  at  the  appointed  ren- 
dezvous, and  on  July  30  moved  in  nearer  the  low-lying 
coast-line.  On  the  31st  it  blew  hard,  and  the  sea  was 
so  rough  that  we  did  not  land  until  August  i. 

Before  I  proceed  to  describe  our  campaign  in  Northern 
China,  I  must  refer  to  the  fact,  well  known  at  the  time 
on  the  spot,  that  our  army  was  hampered  throughout 
its  course  by  the  French  contingent  we  had  to  act  with. 
Experience  has  taught  me  how  gallant  and  daring  in  action 
is  the  French  soldier  of  every  rank.  Our  military  history 
abounds  with  the  stories  of  battles  where  we  learnt  to 
respect  him  as  an  enemy,  and  to  admire  his  pluck  and 
his  heroic  endurance.  My  own  generation  stood  beside 
him  in  the  Crimea,  and  we  saw  him  succeed  there  whilst 
we  failed.  I  do  not  dwell  upon  the  causes  that  led  to  our 
failure,  but  the  fact  remains  that  whilst  we  did  fail  there, 
the  military  ability  and  military  aptitude  and  the  superior 
strength  of  their  army  in  the  field,  enabled  the  French  to  win 
all  along  the  line.  In  China,  however,  we  had  a  larger  army 
than  the  French  ;  indeed,  we  had  to  leave  some  of  it  behind 
to  satisfy  their  susceptibilities  by  keeping  strictly  within 
the  numbers  we  had  agreed  to  place  in  the  field.     We 

21 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

also  possessed  the  great  advantage  of  having  at  Hong 
Kong  a  good  military  and  naval  station  well  supplied  with 
reserves  of  warlike  stores  to  draw  upon.  The  French  had 
none  of  these  local  advantages,  and  their  army  had  left 
France  by  no  means  well-eqiupped  for  war  in  a  far-off 
Eastern  country.  We  had  long  experience  in  such  wars. 
They  had  none.  Our  alliance  with  France  for  this  cam- 
paign in  China  may  have  suited  our  foreign  policy  for  the 
time  being,  but  the  presence  of  this  little  French  con- 
tingent with  us  in  the  field  was  a  serious  hindrance  to  our 
military  operations  throughout  this  campaign.  In  one 
of  Sir  Harry  Parkes'  published  letters  he  wrote  as  follows 
on  July  25,  i860  :  "This  dreadful  alliance  is  a  very,  very 
great  reason  for  our  devoutly  desiring  a  speedy  settlement 
of  the  question.  They  do  us  no  good,  and  act,  in  fact, 
in  every  respect  just  like  a  drag  upon  our  coach.  They 
use  our  stores,  get  in  our  way  at  all  points,  and  retard  all 
our  movements.''''  ^ 


^  Page  346,  vol.  i.  of  Life  of  Sir  Harry  Parkes,  by  Mr.  Stanley  Lane- 
Poole. 


22 


CHAPTER    XXIX 
Army  Lands  at  Peh-Tang,  August   i,    i860 

THE  landing  party  consisted  of  General  Sutton's 
brigade  of  foot,  with  a  nine-pounder  and  a  rocket 
battery,  conveyed  in  large  troop  boats,  each  of  which  held 
fifty  soldiers.  All  were  towed  ashore  by  two  small  gun- 
vessels.  We  soon  came  in  sight  of  the  high  cavaliers  in  the 
shore  forts,  which  at  that  epoch  were  always  striking  features 
in  Chinese  sea  coast  defences.  Pushing  on,  the  boats 
anchored  under  the  mud  bank  of  the  southern  side  of  the 
river  about  a  mile  below  the  forts.  No  enemy  showed  him- 
self beyond  what  we  should  have  called  a  couple  of  squad- 
rons of  mounted  Tartars  who  kept  near  the  gate  through 
which  leads  the  road  to  Sinho  and  the  Taku  Forts.  There 
was  about  a  mile  of  a  deep  muddy  flat  to  be  waded  through 
immediately  upon  landing,  so  there  was  little  of  the  pomp 
and  circumstance  of  war  about  that  operation.  The  first 
man  to  jump  ashore  and  lead  up  the  mud  bank  was  the 
brigadier.  He  was  an  old  campaigner  well  known  for  his 
swearing  propensities,  and  famous  as  a  great  game  shot  in 
South  Africa.  I  shall  never  forget  his  appearance  as  he 
struggled  through  that  mud,  knee  deep  in  many  places.  He 
had  taken  off  trousers,  boots  and  socks,  and  slung  them  over 
his  brass  scabbarded  sword  which  he  carried  over  one  shoul- 
der.    Picture  a  somewhat  fierce  and  ugly  bandy-legged  little 

23 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

man  thus  accoutred  in  a  big  white  helmet,  clothed  in  a  dirty 
jacket  of  red  serge,  below  which  a  very  short  slate-coloured 
flannel  shirt  extended  a  few  inches,  cursing  and  swearing 
loudly  "  all  round  "  at  everybody  and  everything  as  he  led 
his  brigade  through  that  hateful  mire.  I  remember  many 
funny  scenes  in  my  soldiering  days,  but  I  never  laughed 
more  than  I  did  at  this  amusing  "  disembarkation  "  of  the 
first  brigade  that  landed  in  northern  China. 

We  had  a  cold,  bad  and  wet  bivouac  that  night.  Neither 
tree  nor  bush  to  bum,  and  no  fresh  water  to  drink,  for  every 
calabash  had  been  soon  emptied  in  the  exertion  of  struggling 
through  the  mud.  Around  us  many  marshy  spots  of  dirty 
salt  water,  but  not  a  drop  to  drink.  In  the  middle  of  the 
night  Major — afterwards  Sir  Henry — Wilmot  and  I  started 
back  on  the  mud  in  search  of  the  Quarter-Master-General's 
boat,  in  which  I  knew  there  was  a  small  keg  of  drinking 
water.  After  a  long  dreary  and  fatiguing  march  to  and 
fro,  we  reached  the  bivouac,  carrying  the  water  keg  slung  on 
an  oar  between  us.  We  met  with  a  warm  reception.  Dur- 
ing the  night,  Mr. — afterwards  Sir  Harry — Parkes  the  most 
indefatigable  and  most  daring  of  men,  together  with  an 
officer  of  the  Quarter-Master-General's  department,  made  his 
way  unopposed  into  the  town  of  Peh-Tang.  The  inhabi- 
tants said  there  were  no  soldiers  there,  so  those  two  gentle- 
men broke  open  the  fort  gate,  and  soon  returned  to  our 
general  with  the  news.  The  people  told  them  they  suffered 
much  from  the  Tartar  patrols  that  frequently  visited  them. 
They  hated  these  Tartars,  to  whom  they  referred  in  an 
"  aside  " — not  intended  to  be  overheard  by  Mr.  Parkes — as 
"  stinking  more  than  you  English  do."  We  think  ourselves 
a  cleanly  race,  but  we  must  evidently  have  to  Chinese  noses 
a  strong  "  national  smell  "  we  wot  not  of  ourselves. 

24 


PEH-TANG 

The  next  day  and  thenceforward  until  we  finally  left  the 
place  for  the  Pei-Ho  River,  our  men  were  horribly  crowded 
in  Peh-Tang,  having  to  share  its  limited  accommodation  with 
the  French.  Our  Chinese  Cooly  Corps,  some  2,500  strong, 
under  Major  Temple,  did  us  most  excellent  service  in  landing 
our  stores,  etc.,  at  Peh-Tang  ;  but  they  were  great  rascals 
and  difficult  to  keep  in  any  order  in  a  Chinese  town  like 
Peh-Tang. 

On  August  9  I  was  sent  with  200  cavalry  and  100  foot 
to  reconnoitre  the  enemy's  position  in  the  direction  of 
Sinho,  a  large  village  about  six  miles  south-west  of  Peh-Tang. 

I  made  a  wide  detour  with  the  cavalry,  pushing  on  within  a 
mile  of  the  enemy's  left  flank  at  that  place.  I  returned 
without  firing  a  shot  with  the  glad  tidings  that  the  line  I  had 
taken  led  over  firm  ground  suitable  for  all  arms,  intersected 
with  many  pools  of  good  fresh  water. 

We  had  some  heavy  rain  during  our  hateful  halt  at 
Peh-Tang,  a  stay  much  prolonged  by  the  French,  who  were 
slow  in  their  disembarkation  of  both  men  and  stores,  through 
want  of  the  necessary  appliances.  We  all  longed  to  get 
away  from  that  town's  muddy,  filthy  streets  and  stinking 
houses,  so  when  it  became  known  in  the  evening  of  August 

II  that  we  were  to  celebrate  our  grouse-shooting  festival 
of  the  morrow  by  an  advance  on  Sin-Ho,  every  heart  rejoiced. 
It  is  only  through  experience  of  the  sensation  that  we  learn 
how  intense,  even  in  anticipation,  is  the  rapture-giving  de- 
light which  the  attack  upon  an  enemy  affords.  I  cannot 
analyze  nor  weigh,  nor  can  I  justify  the  feeling.  But  once 
really  experienced,  aU  other  subsequent  sensations  are  but 
as  the  tinkling  of  a  doorbell  in  comparison  with  the  throbbing 
toU  of  Big  Ben. 

The  nth  August  was  a  wet  day.  and  the  weather  did 

25 


THE    STORY   OF    A    S    IDDER'S   LIFE 
r:t!"'r  "^-" -rrrziiiZi  i:  i  -  --  :  :  --^  rrZovring  morning. 


r.r      The 


rrf  ~3us;y,    wi_ 


it-    Howe   t:    ^  :  Htt      ir  in 


1.'.  J.  iiz  .  ini  :::^  i.iu:  :_rrT  ^iirj  1:1  ~  "^  over 
:Jii  :-iri  tJii.:  >!  :r:—  ihr  ::  -  ui::  :f.T  :j^-  :::2iitiy. 
A5  :  111    s^  :       :       i    ::i:r  ::    :-    ::::        1    :         r  5^t 


^o^K^t,-'-.    -  -•-  -..-.■-- ,-:    ■-.,-_----, -,--,-.-_    ,-..,-_, 


15       HZ'At'-tl,   t r.cV  VTr^r    .lir.""    I    "    I'JT  DHtlTC 

iirrinr  into  the  :- ::1:  ::  -jlz—.  killrf  ~iny. 


SIN'-HO 

Er.^Ls:.  r-r.r  ij^r.ri  i:  2.  rLr.§r  01  x,ooo  vLrfj.  Fr:zi 
where  I  V.-1.5  v.--.r.  '.:.z  5e::r.d  Divisioii,  I  5.i"v  ill  -Jii= 
inprrle  TzLere  ^v^;  a.  ::-i  iaahle  body  ::  :i.e  ent— r  = 
hcrir    round     :r.rLr    ~ii::     Tr.::r:'.  iljutnti     "1.:     --; ------ 

their    iin^Llli    i"f    ~i::::l:  i^rii    i::    vii::    e- iii".':  irr  i     :;• 

tl.T    :;:::.i  I : vision  had  rri:-rl   :l-r   ±rr.i  rr:ini   :.:;i: 

£.7.1  ::;  i"L_rr."  v.rr-r  5 1 1 n  in  action.     Tzt  rri:r.:r   ::    cir 

115  -JL  vizy  :zi:.  .::^r  rrder,  andtfccM^h  ri±  i::fl  ;~~ri  :3 
bnrst  amongst  il-e~  v.e  ::  ili  sii  ir  ■■  rier^rs;  h:rfr? 

No  men  co^ild  have  ii'.L::;ri  -"ier  51  :r.  ?.  heivv  fj-e 
more  pluckily  -.:.:.:.  :hry  iii  mi  I  ::.:ii  ::::  ':.i'.z  ::iirLki:ii 
what  5T?lcr-d2 z.  ri''ilr~."  'hr'.'  •'•'"'ili  z-   iii-r  Sv-'l^r.  "tz."-~~  I 

c;.  --Ir.".  v.r.i:.  v.  im  a  ioud  wiid  yeii  tiiey  jj-.r^ri  viii  much 
Crir :~:  iiiuon.  Oir  two  native  C5.v?2rv  rer~e-:i.  !rf  ^v 
Mi  ;:     :  :  V  Gener-1.  Si:   Dighton   Pr:  ~     \  C  .    -:;    :y 


D:ir:::;  G-ris.     Th 

:?  •■ 

.        il.: 

_  _  .. . 

,.  -•-_  ^.^ 

t:: 

::  -A-:: ; 

"- 

Tl  '■...--■   -         „.•-    -       ... 

r.ra. 

five  m  r-    i"  i   v^j  -.':. 

e'r 

'•'.- 

"  pumpecL"     T  :- 
been  long  on  bci:l  r 
ponies  in  good  wor.::: 

c  -  -  -  '- 

- 

--    '^^ 

7 :  -  - 

■  - .  -■    . . 

27 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

horsemen.  The  French  and  EngHsh  troops  then  advanced 
and  entered  the  pretty  httle  town  of  Sin-Ho.  About  two  and 
a  half  miles  south-east  of  it,  on  the  roadtoTaku,  stood  the 
vUlage  of  Tang-ku.  A  narrow  causeway  connected  it  with 
Sin-Ho,  the  country  to  its  north  being  at  some  places  very 
swampy  and  almost  impassable.  Between  it  and  the  Pei-Ho 
River  to  the  south  the  ground  was  firm  and  good. 

By  a  reconnaissance  made  next  morning  it  was  ascertained 
that  aU  the  Tartar  cavalry  had  retired  to  the  right  bank  of 
the  Pei-Ho  by  which  the  road  to  Pekin  passes. 

In  Sin-Ho  we  found  some  interesting  letters  from  the 
celebrated  Tartar  General  Sang-ko-lin-sin  to  the  Great 
Council  of  State  as  to  the  plans  we  might  be  expected  to 
follow  should  we  land  an  army  near  the  mouth  of  the  Pei-Ho. 
He  had  evidently  had  our  parliamentary  discussions  upon 
the  proposed  war  translated.  His  minute  upon  the  dis- 
cussion in  Parliament  upon  our  proposed  war  with  China 
is  an  amusing  commentary  upon  our  usual  mode  of  proceeding 
in  aU  such  matters.  He  remarks  that  the  fact  of  our  having 
then  said  so  openly  in  public  that  we  meant  to  invade 
Northern  China  was  a  clear  proof  that  we  had  no  such  in- 
tention. He  added,  "  those  who  make  war  keep  silent 
regarding  their  proposed  movements  :  everything  is  talked 
over  and  done  in  secret,  the  drums  are  muffled  and  no  flags 
are  shown,"  He  gave  us  credit  for  more  public  wisdom 
in  aU  questions  of  peace  and  war  than  we  ever  display.  He 
showed  his  own  military  wisdom  by  saying  that  "  should  the 
barbarians  persist  in  the  avowed  intention  of  invasion,  they 
will  most  likely  land  at  Peh-Tang  :  to  do  this  is  very  difficult, 
but  as  we  cannot  defend  the  place  they  may  succeed. 
He  then  proceeded  to  describe  the  difficulties  we  should 
encounter,  and  did  so  clearly  and  ably.     He  predicted  the 

28 


TANG-KOO 

course  of  events  very  much  as  they  occurred,  his  only  serious 
mistake  being  that  he  did  not  annihilate  us,  and  that  we 
chased  from  the  field  those  whom  he  had  commissioned  to 
end  our  existence. 

The  next  morning,  August  13,  I  was  sent  out  with  some 
cavalry  to  reconnoitre  up  the  river,  but  obtained  Uttle 
useful  information. 

The  morning  of  August  14  was  fine.  We  were  under 
arms  at  4  a.m.,  and  the  sky  looked  promising.  The  first 
few  rays  of  the  sun  sparlded  on  our  bayonets,  and 
warmed  us  all  pleasantly.  The  twelve  French  and  twenty- 
four  British  guns  opened  fire  upon  the  enemy's  works  round 
Tang-Koo  at  a  range  of  about  900  yards,  and  soon  silenced 
the  fourteen  Chinese  guns  opposed  to  them.  Thereupon 
a  party  of  the  King's  Royal  Rifles,  gallantly  led  by  Lieu- 
tenant Shaw,  contrived  to  effect  an  entrance  into  the  place 
at  the  point  where  the  enemy's  works  touched  the  river. 
Tang-Koo  was  soon  ours,  and  the  allied  armies  camped 
in  and  around  Sin-Ho.  This  was  a  considerable  success, 
achieved  with  little  loss.  There  we  halted  six  days  to 
bring  up  the  other  heavy  guns  and  ammunition  we  should 
require  for  the  capture  of  the  Taku  Forts  which  defended 
the  mouth  of  the  river.  It  was  in  attacking  them  that 
Admiral  Sir  James  Hope  had  met  with  his  serious  reverse 
in  June  the  previous  year,  as  already  mentioned. 

My  work  was  constant  in  sketching  ground,  mapping  the 
country,  and  making  reconnaissances  in  all  directions.  This 
I  enjoyed  beyond  measure.  The  weather  was  delightful, 
with  cool,  cloudy  days  and  the  nights  sufficiently  warm  to 
make  a  bivouac  pleasant.  On  August  16  I  had  been  busy 
all  day  at  some  distance  from  the  river.  Upon  returning  to 
camp  in  the  evening  I  found  it  under  water  from  an  unusually 

29 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

high  tide.  Looking  into  my  tent  I  found  much  of  my  ex- 
tremely smaU  kit  floating  about  there.  I  did  not  enjoy  my 
bed  that  night. 

We  now  threw  a  bridge  of  boats  across  the  Pei-Ho  near 
Tang-Koo,  half  made  by  us  and  half  by  the  French  :  a  bad 
arrangement.  It  would  have  been  much  better  to  have 
drawn  lots  to  decide  which  army  should  make  it.  A  close 
reconnaissance  of  the  Taku  Forts  was  now  made  by  the  two 
allied  Commanders-in-Chief.  Sir  Hope  Grant  was  strongly 
of  opinion  that  the  capture  of  the  forts  on  the  northern  or 
left  bank  of  the  river  was  the  proper  object  to  aim  at.  But 
General  Montauban  took  the  opposite  view  and  pressed  for 
the  attack  to  be  directed  instead  upon  the  great  forts  on  the 
southern  or  right  bank.  I  need  not  enter  here  upon  any 
after-the-event  discussion  of  the  relative  merits  of  the  two 
plans.  I  content  myself  with  saying  that  every  member  of 
the  British  Headquarter  Staff  agreed  with  our  leader.  By 
crossing  the  Pei-Ho  to  follow  the  French  proposal  we  should 
place  an  unfordable  river  between  us  and  our  only  base,  that 
of  Peh-Tang.  But  there  were  so  many  reasons  for  refusing 
to  accept  General  Montauban's  plan  that  I  pass  on,  merely 
remarking  that  he  thought  it  necessary  to  protest  in  a 
strongly  worded  minute  of  August  20  against  Sir  Hope 
Grant's  scheme  for  the  capture  of  the  Taku  Forts.  In  that 
document  he  said  Sir  Hope's  plan  was  opposed  to  his  ideas 
of  the  method  of  conducting  this  operation  of  war,  and 
wound  up  as  follows  :  "  The  object  of  my  observations  is, 
above  all,  to  free  myself  from  military  responsibility  with 
reference  to  my  own  Government  in  the  event  of  its  judging 
the  question  from  the  same  point  of  view  as  that  from  which 
I  myself  regard  it." 

Sir  Hope  Grant  answered  it  the  same  day,  combating 

30 


THE  TAKU    FORTS 

General  Montauban's  arguments  and  adhering  to  the 
decision  he  had  already  arrived  at. 

Throughout  this  war  the  few  troops  furnished  for  it  by 
France  constituted  a  serious  drag  upon  all  our  operations. 
We  never  derived  any  military  benefit  whatever  from  them, 
but  I  suppose  the  Ministers  at  home,  who  always  have  the 
best  means  of  forming  an  opinion  upon  matters  of  foreign 
policy,  deemed  it  advisable  at  that  particular  time  to  face 
the  military  drawbacks  of  the  alliance  for  the  international 
advantages  it  was  hoped  we  should  gain  thereby.  I  spare 
my  readers  any  learned  exposition  of  the  relative  merits 
of  the  two  plans  for  the  taking  of  the  Taku  Forts.  The 
matter  is  purely  professional,  and  I  shall  only  say  that  after 
a  lapse  of  forty  years  I  am  as  strongly  of  opinion  now  as  I 
was  in  i860  that  Sir  Hope  Grant's  plan  was  the  true  one, 
in  fact  the  only  sound  one  for  that  operation. 

By  the  night  of  August  20  everything  was  ready  for  the 
attack  of  the  northern  fort — that  nearest  to  us — which  our 
general  had  selected  as  the  key  to  the  position.  Sir  Robert 
Napier — an  old  engineer  officer — was  of  invaluable  use  to 
our  Commander-in-Chief  whilst  these  arrangements  were 
being  made,  but  the  entire  plan  of  operations  was  Sir  Hope 
Grant's  alone.  With  the  eight  heavy  guns  and  three  eight- 
inch  mortars  we  had  placed  in  position,  and  two  Armstrong 
twelve-pounder  batteries,  two  nine-pounder  batteries  and 
one  rocket  battery  we  opened  fire  at  5  a.m.,  August  21, 
the  enemy  answering  with  all  the  guns  they  could  bring  to 
bear  upon  our  batteries.  Amongst  their  guns  were  the  two 
thirty-two  pounders  they  had  taken  from  our  gunboats 
sunk  upon  the  occasion  of  Admiral  Sir  James  Hope's 
disastrous  attack  the  previous  year. 

About  6  a.m.,  during  what  I  may  call  the  climax  of  the 

31 


THE   STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

artillery  fire  on  both  sides,  a  taU  black  pillar  of  smoke  and 
rubbish  shot  up  as  if  by  magic  in  the  fort  upon  which  our 
fire  was  concentrated.     It  burst  like  a  rocket  shell  upon 
attaining  a  considerable  height,  scattering  around  in  all 
directions  a  shower  of  earth,  planks  and  other  wooden  debris. 
This  was  followed  by  a  very  heavy,  rumbling,  booming 
sound.     A  large  magazine  had  been  exploded  by  our  fire, 
and  for  a  few  moments  the  firing  ceased  on  both  sides,  the 
common  opinion  being  that  all  further  resistance  there  was 
at  an  end.     But  we  had  reckoned  without  our  host,  for  soon 
the  Chinese  batteries  reopened  all    round.      Half-an-hour 
later  another  explosion  took  place,  but  this  time  it  was  in  the 
larger  northern  fort.     By  7  a.m.  we  had  silenced  all  the  guns 
in  the  fort  Sir  Hope  Grant  had  selected  for  attack,  and  he 
now  felt  the  time  had  arrived  to  assault  it.     He  accordingly 
ordered  two  battalions — one  of  the  Essex  the  other  of  the 
York  and  Lancaster  Regiments — to  advance  and  attack. 
They  moved  straight  for  the  gate  of    the  fort,  a    French 
column  on  our  right  advancing  towards  the  angle  of  the  work 
where  it  rested  upon  the  river.     It  had  been  unfortunately 
arranged  that  a  strong  party  of  the  Royal  Marines  should 
carry  on  their  shoulders  a  small  infantry  pontoon    bridge 
previously   put    together   and  made   ready  for  launching 
upon  the  outer  wet  ditch  of  the  fort.     This  was  a  stupid 
proceeding  on  the  part  of  our  engineers,  for  it  not  only 
increased  our  loss  and  somewhat  retarded  our  capture  of  the 
place,  but  it  blocked  up  the  only  good  road  for  our  assaulting 
column.     A  round  shot  or  large  jingaU  bullet  tore  open  one 
of  these  copper  pontoons  as  the  bridge  was  being  carried 
by  our  men,  and  when  laid  down  on  the  edge  of  the  ditch 
it  could   not  be  launched  until  the  injured  pontoon,    etc., 
had  been  removed.      I  Wcis  in  a  stooping  position,  on  my 

32 


GERALD    GRAHAM 

knees,  busy  helping  its  removal,  when  I  heard  some  one 
immediately  behind  me  say  something.  Looking  up,  I 
sav/  it  was  Gerald  Graham,  V.C.,  of  the  Royal  Engineers,  the 
most  imperturbable  of  men,  and  an  old  comrade  of  mine  in 
the  trenches  before  Sebastopol.^  Much  over  six  feet  in 
height,  he  was  riding  a  tall  horse,  and  to  hear  what  he  was 
saying  amidst  the  general  hubbub  of  shouts  mingled  with 
the  noise  and  din  of  heavy  firing,  I  stood  up  and  put  my 
hand  upon  his  thigh  to  get  my  ear  nearer  to  him.  He  said 
in  the  most  ordinary  tone,  and  without  wincing,  "  Don't  put 
your  hand  there,  for  I  have  just  had  a  bullet  through 
my  thigh." 

The  rear  face  of  the  more  northern  of  the  two  forts  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Pei-Ho — that  which  we  were  attacking — 
was  protected  by  two  wet  ditches  twenty  feet  apart.  Over 
them  the  road  to  the  gateway  of  the  fort  passed  by  wooden 
bridges  ;  that  across  the  outer  ditch  had  been  removed, 
and  the  drawbridge  over  the  inner  ditch  was  "up."  The 
gate  itself  had  been  recently  blocked  up  with  rows  of  strong 
timber,  the  ends  well  sunk  in  the  ground.  The  parapet 
had  been  considerably  thickened  to  "  counter  "  what  the 
Chinese  deemed  the  mean  advantage  we  had  taken  of 
attacking  the  rear  instead  of  the  front  face  of  the  work. 
The  space  between  the  two  ditches  was  as  closely  planted 

1  I  have  more  than  once  walked  with  him  back  to  camp  in  the 
Crimea  from  some  of  our  advanced  parallels  upon  being  relieved  after 
a  tour  of  trench  duty,  when  from  sheer  laziness — it  was  a  faUing  of 
his — he  would  make  straight  "  across  country  "  in  the  direction  of  the 
Middle  Ravine  picket.  He  preferred  thus  to  expose  himself  to  the 
fire  of  the  Russian  sharpshooters  rather  than  take  the  trouble  of 
following  our  line  of  trenches  where  he  would  have  been  screened 
from  view.  When  with  him  upon  such  occasions  I  never  reUshed 
the  manoeuvre,  but  apparently  it  did  not  occvu:  to  him  that  there 
was  anything  unusual  in  his  proceeding, 

VOL.  II.  33  D 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

with  sharply  pointed  bamboo  stakes  as  the  wheat  stalks 
of  a  stubble  field. 

The  scramble  over  those  two  ditches  was  no  child's  play 
under  the  shower  of  missiles  of  all  sorts,  from  "  stinkpots  " 
to  cold  roundshot,  with  which  the  Chinese  plied  their  assail- 
ants. Fortunate  indeed  was  the  man  who  in  the  foremost 
ranks  reached  the  foot  of  the  parapet  unhurt.  Some  men 
ran  along  the  edge  of  the  ditch  searching  for  an  easy  point  of 
passage,  but  others  more  daring  and  following  their  officer's 
example,  plunged  at  once  recklessly  into  the  muddy  water 
before  them  which  in  the  middle  reached  their  armpits. 
Even  in  the  midst  of  all  the  turmoil  at  the  moment,  shouts 
of  laughter  greeted  the  poor  devil  who  had  the  bad  luck  to 
sink  for  a  moment  in  some  chance  hole  as  he  pushed  across. 
What  danger  is  there  in  which  the  British  soldier  will  not 
have  his  laugh  ?  The  narrow  causeway  to  the  Fort  Gate 
was  soon  covered  with  killed  and  wounded,  and  the  garrison 
seemed  determined  to  fight  to  the  last.  It  was  slow  work 
thus  getting  over  those  two  ditches.  Busy  as  I  was  at  the 
outer  ditch,  my  attention  was  attracted  by  seeing  an  officer 
with  his  sword  in  his  mouth  swarm  up  one  of  the  side  posts 
over  the  top  of  which  passed  the  rope  which  held  up  the 
drawbridge  of  the  inner  ditch.  It  was  my  late  "  chum  " 
in  the  Gudh  campaign,  the  recklessly  daring  Augustus 
Anson,  M.P.  He  was  soon  high  enough  to  hack  with  his 
sword — and  it  was  always  sharp — at  the  rope,  until  down 
came  the  drawbridge  with  a  crash.  It  had  suffered  severely 
from  our  fire,  still  many  were  able  to  crawl  over  its  shaky 
timbers.  This  was  a  plucky,  an  heroic,  feat  on  his  part 
characteristic  of  the  man.  He  had  already  won  the  Victoria 
Cross. 


34 


STORMING    THE    TAKU    FORTS 

Our  assaulting  column  was  2,500  strong  ;  the  French  were 
to  have  operated  with  1,000  men  but  did  not  furnish  500. 
They  attacked  on  our  right,  and  though  few  in  number 
nothing  could  exceed  their  daring  gallantry.  It  was  well 
said  upon  that  occasion  that  their  conduct  was  "  worthy 
of  the  great  nation  to  which  they  belonged."  Their  Chinese 
coolie  corps  carried  the  French  scaling  ladders,  and  to  get 
over  the  wet  ditches  dry-foot  our  allies  adopted  an  ingenious 
and  amusing  plan.  They  sent  a  number  of  these  coolies 
into  the  middle  of  the  ditch,  and  using  them  as  a  pier  upon 
which  they  rested  the  ends  of  their  scaling  ladders,  thus 
made  a  bridge  of  two  spans  over  it,  along  which  they 
scrambled. 

After  much  labour  on  the  part  of  all  engaged,  a  considerable 
number  of  officers  and  private  soldiers  of  both  nations  were 
soon  gathered  together  under  the  steep  outer  slope  of  the 
parapet  that  enclosed  the  face  of  the  fort  we  were  attacking, 
and  every  minute  increased  that  number.  All  attempts 
made  by  the  French  to  place  their  ladders  against  that  slope 
were  met  gallantly  by  the  enemy,  who  hurled  back  both 
the  ladders  and  the  men  upon  them.  However,  determined 
men  always  succeed  in  war,  and  as  soon  as  one  ladder  was 
thrown  down  our  gallant  allies  replaced  it  by  another. 
At  last,  a  French  soldier  reached  the  top,  and,  bounding  upon 
the  parapet,  tricolor  in  hand,  he  had  just  time  to  wave  it 
and  to  hear  it  greeted  by  his  comrades  with  a  wild  huzzah 
before  he  fell  and  his  brave  spirit  had  passed  away  into  that 
better  world  where  the  souls  of  all  such  noble  soldiers 
doubtless  live  for  ever. 

The  first  of  either  army  actually  inside  the  fort  were  two 
young  subalterns,  Rogers  of  the  Essex,^  and  Burslem  of 
^  Now  Major-General  Rogers,  V.C,  C.B. 
35 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

the  Hampshire  Regiment,  but  both  were  driven  out  again, 
the  former  wounded.  ChapHn,  a  subaltern  of  the  Hampshire 
Regiment,^  carrying  the  Queen's  Colour,  was,  I  beUeve,  the 
first  to  place  any  national  standard  upon  the  captured 
work  :  he  was  wounded  three  times  in  doing  so.  But  both 
the  soldiers  of  France  and  England  did  so  well  that  it  would 
be  impossible  as  weU  as  invidious  to  attempt  to  draw  any 
distinction  whatever  between  their  respective  daring.  The 
Chinese  within  the  work,  when  we  had  forced  our  way  in, 
fought  to  the  last,  and  both  French  and  Enghsh  bayonets 
were  freely  used  before  all  resistance  ceased.  The  interior 
of  the  captured  work  presented  a  horrible  scene  of  dead  and 
dying  Chinamen.  I  beheve  its  garrison  had  been  500  men, 
of  whom  only  100  effected  their  escape.  The  two  Chinese 
generals  within  the  place  were  killed,  one  being  the  general 
in  command  of  all  the  works  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river. 
The  fort  we  had  taken  was  the  key  to  the  whole  position 
on  both  banks,  and  General  Montauban  that  evening  must 
have  wished  he  had  never  protested  against  its  being  made 
the  first  object  of  our  attack.  The  large  Chinese  work 
lower  down  the  river  on  the  same  bank  was  undefended,  and 
upon  entering  it  we  saw  huddled  together  in  one  part  of  it 
about  2,000  Chinese  soldiers  who  had  thrown  away  their 
military  badges  and  assumed  the  attitude  of  peaceable 
citizens.  They  expected  to  be  killed  and  were  astonished 
when  we  told  them  they  might  go  free.  We  afterwards 
learnt  that  our  clemency  had  a  great  effect  wherever  this 
proceeding  on  our  part  became  known. 

It  had  been  a  trying  morning  and  afternoon  to  aU  of  us, 
and  to  those  good  friends  our  horses  also.  But  now,  to 
make   matters   worse,   the   very  heavens   seemed  leagued 

^  Now  Major-General  Chaplin,  V.C.,  C.B. 
36 


HEAVY    DOWNPOUR    OF    RAIN 

against  us,  and  as  one  condition  of  that  alliance  to  open  their 
rain  sluices  upon  the  scene.  I  thought  I  heard  the  sound  of 
their  working  machinery  in  the  bursts  of  thunder  which 
broke  around  on  every  side  and  shook  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  as  they  did  so.  Upon  me  a  very  heavy  downpour  in 
every  locality  and  under  all  circumstances  has  a  saddening 
effect :  at  sea,  on  land,  in  the  high  mountains  and  amongst 
the  abodes  of  men  in  well  cultivated  plains  it  is  always  the 
same.  But  there,  in  a  deadly  level  mud-flat  only  a  very  few 
feet  above  high-tide  mark,  where  no  tree  or  patch  of  grass 
was  to  be  seen,  nor  any  abode  of  man  beyond  the  low,  flat- 
roofed  mud  dwellings  of  the  peasant,  this  overflowing, 
drowning  rainfall  with  its  thunder  chorus  and  its  Kghtning 
accompaniment  made  most  of  us  sad  and  weary.  I  know 
I  felt  poor  at  heart,  and  even  the  remembrance  of  our  brilliant 
success  that  day  was  not  sufficient  to  cheer  me  up. 

In  war,  the  weather  certainly  affects  the  spirits  very  much. 
Privations  and  discomfort  in  the  fine  weather  of  a  soft 
pleasant  climate  have  little  effect  upon  the  well  constituted 
masculine  mind  and  spirits.  But  wet  clothes  and  damp 
surroundings  and  mud  and  dirt,  with  hunger  and  nasty  food, 
soon  convert  privations  which  should  be  joy  into  sheer 
misery.  As  I  stood  wet,  tired,  sleepy  and  hungry  upon  the 
lofty  cavalier  of  the  larger  of  the  two  northern  forts  and 
looked  around  upon  the  surrounding  expanse  of  mud  and 
dirty  pools,  with  a  yeUow  river  flowing  through  black  sHmy 
banks,  I  thought  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  nature  any 
scene  more  essentially  hideous.  The  road  by  which  we  had 
reached  the  forts  was  entirely  submerged  for  long  distances, 
and  its  few  uncovered  spots  were  deep  in  mire  and  slush. 
Even  the  most  naturally  cheery  amongst  us  felt  depressed, 
notwithstanding  our  victory,  as  we  straggled  back  to  our  wet 

37 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

tents.  All  of  us  had  been  up  long  before  daylight,  and  had 
during  the  day  eaten  but  little,  and  that  little  "  on  the 
thumb,"  as  our  allies  would  have  said.  With  empty 
stomachs,  very  sleepy  and  both  tired  and  weary,  that  ride 
of  five  miles  back  to  camp  is  not  one  of  my  pleasantest 
recollections.  The  road — may  I  call  it  a  road  ! — was  so 
slippery  that  our  tired  and  hungry  horses  could  with  difficulty 
keep  their  legs.  Upon  reaching  camp  I  found  it  had  been 
inundated  during  our  absence,  but  that  the  flood  was  now 
receding.  It  had,  however,  overflowed  the  little  mound 
a  careful  servant  had  raised  round  my  tent  to  keep  it  dry. 
That  mound  now  acted  as  a  dyke  to  keep  the  water  in  and 
had  converted  my  tent  into  a  pond,  some  four  inches  deep. 
I  shaU  never  forget  the  sadness  that  fell  upon  me  as  I  saw 
my  pet  pair  of  easy  old  camp  shoes  floating  about  that  pond. 
On  my  dreary  way,  my  feet  clad  in  the  saturated  and  cling- 
ing boots  I  had  been  in  since  4  a.m.  I  had  pictured  to  myself 
the  luxury  of  changing  them  for  those  shoes  which  I  calculated 
upon  finding  dry  and  comfortable.  As  I  looked  round  my 
tent,  here  and  there  portions  of  less  buoyant  articles  showed 
themselves  above  the  flood,  reminding  me  that  most  of  my 
property  was  below  its  surface.  The  night  was  pitch  dark. 
There  was  very  little  to  bum  and  that  little  was  saturated. 
No  efforts  could  kindle  a  fire,  indeed,  it  was  with  difficulty 
I  lit  the  candle  that  stood  in  a  bottle  upon  my  camp  table. 
I  was  hungry  and  devoured  some  ration  biscuit  and  stuff 
from  a  tin  canister  that  was  labelled  "  beef."  Wet  through, 
with  no  dry  change,  but  very  tired,  I  lay  down  happy  after 
this  frugal  supper,  for  had  we  not  taken  those  far-famed 
Taku  Forts ! 

I  learnt  next  morning  that  the  Chinese  Governor-General, 
after  a  long  conference  with  Mr.  Parkes,  had  surrendered 

38 


SURRENDER  OF  ALL  THE  TAKU  FORTS 

the  southern  forts  and  all  the  country  up  the  Pei-Ho  as  far 
as  Tien-tsin,  together  with  that  city  itself.  The  end  seemed 
— I  thought  then — fast  approaching  :  but,  like  all  those 
around  me,  I  was  wrong. 

Writing  home  from  Tang-Koo  on  August  24,  i860,  I  said 
what  all  then  believed  to  be  the  case,  that  "  the  third  China 
War  is  over,  and  all  that  we  fought  for  in  a  military  point 
of  view  is  obtained."  I  give  here  a  copy  of  the  official 
sketch  I  had  made  of  the  general  position  and  which  I  had 
had  lithographed  for  distribution,  previous  to  our  attack  on 
August  21.  "  You  may  perceive,"  I  wrote  in  my  letter, 
*'  that  all  beyond  this  village  of  Tang-Koo  is  dotted  in  on 
the  plan,  indicating  that  it  had  not  been  accurately  sur- 
veyed, as  this  was  impossible  when  I  drew  it.  The  other 
parts  of  the  sketch  I  surveyed  carefully  and  it  was  generally 
considered  to  be  very  satisfactory.  Copies  of  it  are  being 
sent  home  to  all  the  chief  military  officials  by  this  mail,  but 
as  drawings  of  this  nature  done  by  officers  of  the  Quarter- 
Master-General's  department  belong  to  the  State,  I  do  not 
wish  any  public  use  to  be  made  of  it. 

"  I  wrote  home  from  Peh-Tang  telling  you  we  were  to 
begin  operations  on  the  12th  inst.,  as  Sir  Hope  Grant  was 
determined,  come  what  might,  not  to  run  the  great  risks 
attendant  upon  keeping  the  large  force  we  had  at  Peh- 
Tang  cooped  up  in  that  small  and  unsanitary  town. 
Although  ^the  French  were  strongly  opposed  to  a  forward 
move  at  so  early  a  date,  our  general  was  deter- 
mined to  postpone  the  forward  movement  no  longer.  He 
told  the  French  that  if  they  were  not  ready  to  move  by  that 
date  he  should  operate  alone,  as  our  force  was  sufficiently 
strong  to  enable  us  to  do  without  any  assistance  from 
them.     Under    these    circumstances,    General    Montauban 

39 


THE    STORY   OF   A    SOLDIER'S   LIFE 

was  forced  to  comply,  though  he  did  so  unwillingly,  saying 
he  would  only  send  forward  part  of  his  troops. 

"  Two  reconnaissances  had  been  made  of  the  enemy's 
position  and  of  the  ground  near  it :  one  was  made  by  a 
French  general  on  the  3rd,  the  other  on  the  9th  inst.,  by 
'Lieutenant-Colonel  Wolseley,'  the  latter  being,  I  flatter 
myself,  the  more  successful  of  the  two.  From  the  informa- 
tion I  collected  and  by  marching  over  the  ground  myself,  I 
found  that  at  a  few  miles  distance  from  Peh-Tang  the  ground 
was  sufficiently  hard  for  the  movements  of  cavalry  and 
artillery.  Our  Commander-in-Chief  therefore  determined 
upon  turning  the  enemy's  left  with  all  his  cavalry  and  one 
division  of  infantry,  whilst  the  other  infantry  division  and 
whatever  force  the  French  might  supply  should  march 
direct  along  the  causeway  towards  the  enemy's  entrenched 
position  in  front  of  the  village  of  Sinho. 

"Unfortunately  the  nth  was  a  wet  day,  but  still  our 
general  was  determined  to  move  if  possible  on  the 
following  morning,  so  at  4  a.m.  on  the  12th  we  were 
aU  under  arms,  and  filing  over  the  narrow  bridge  which 
is  the  only  outlet  from  Peh-Tang.  I  must  tell  you 
that  a  few  hours  of  heavy  rain  make  the  whole  country 
here  impassable  for  man  and  beast.  There  is  not  a  stone  of 
any  sort  in  this  district,  so  the  roads,  which  are  all  of  clay, 
although  good  when  baked  hard  by  the  sun,  are  impracti- 
cable for  wheeled  carriages  when  they  are  rendered  soft  by 
rain.  The  morning  of  the  12th  was  far  from  promising. 
The  sky  was  covered  with  dark  leaden-looking  clouds,  and 
a  light  drizzling  rain  fell  now  and  then,  so  that  instead  of 
taking  about  a  couple  of  hours  to  get  all  the  force  clear  of 
the  place,  it  took  six,  as  some  of  the  waggons  having  stuck 
irretrievably  in  the  mud  delayed  every  one  in  the  rear,  as  a 

40 


THE   FIRE  OF   OUR    HEAVY   GUNS 

matter  of  course,  on  that  narrow  causeway.  It  was  very 
hard  work  getting  over  the  first  two  miles  of  the  route  taken 
by  Sir  R.  Napier's  division,  with  which  I  was  sent  by  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  because  I  had  a  good  knowledge  of  the 
country  in  that  direction,  having  been  over  it  during  my 
reconnaissance  on  the  9th.  With  many  a  struggle  my 
horse  carried  me  through  the  mud  for  the  first  few  mUes. 

"  At  about  II  a.m.  we  came  into  action,  and  Sir  R.  Napier's 
division  was  soon  almost  enveloped  by  clouds  of  the  enemy's 
cavalry  advancing  steadily  upon  us  in  their  own  irregular 
fashion.  They  seemed  to  take  little  heed  of  the  heavy  fire 
we  kept  up  on  them  from  fifteen  field  guns,  whilst  about 
twenty  more  were  in  action  on  our  left,  pitching  into  the 
centre  of  their  fortified  position.  These  twenty  guns  were 
with  the  first  division,  with  which  Sir  H.  Grant  then  was. 
The  enemy's  cavalry  came  close  up  to  us,  and  a  few  straggling 
parties  even  charged  our  cavalry  and  guns.  Our  horsemen 
were  at  last  let  loose,  and,  bursting  in  upon  them,  pursued 
them  for  about  five  miles.  But  as  our  horses  were  in  bad 
wind  from  long  confinement  on  board  ship,  we  did  not  cut 
up  more  than  a  few  hundred  of  them  at  the  outside.  StiU, 
the  impression  of  our  superiority  as  soldiers  was  made, 
and  they  acknowledged  it  by  their  flight. 

"  The  fire  of  our  heavy  guns  with  the  first  division  soon  told 
upon  the  enemy's  works  in  front  of  Sinho,  towards  which  the 
enemy  began  to  retreat.  When  Sir  Hope  saw  this,  our  infantry 
were  ordered  to  advance  in  line,but  upon  entering  the  enemy's 
entrenchments  we  found  only  dead  and  dying  men  and 
horses.  Our  two  infantry  divisions  and  the  cavalry  brigade 
met  close  to  Sinho,  a  nice  little  village  surrounded  by  neatly 
kept  gardens.  Leading  down  from  it  in  a  south-easterly 
direction,  was  a  long  causeway  with  a  canal  on  each  side, 

41 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

at  the  end  of  which  stood  Tang-Koo,  the  village  from  which 
I  write  this  letter.  Around  it,  a  long  line  of  entrenchments 
had  been  constructed  which  covered  it  on  three  sides,  the 
fourth  side  being  protected  by  the  Pei-Ho.  General  Mont- 
auban,  evidently  a  little  surprised  at  our  rapid  success, 
was  now  all  for  pushing  on  at  once  to  attack  Tang-Koo  forth- 
with. But  as  the  only  road  leading  to  it  was  the  narrow 
causeway  already  mentioned,  which  was  swept  by  the 
enemy's  guns,  Sir  Hope  most  wisely  refused  positively  to 
advance  further  until  he  had  thrown  bridges  over  the  canals 
bordering  it.  They  would  enable  him  to  deploy  to  the 
right  or  left  as  he  might  require.  The  ground  between  the 
causeway  and  the  river  was  hard,  and  promised  to  be  the 
best  line  for  a  further  advance. 

"  General  Montauban  fussed  and  fumed  so  that  at 
last  our  Commander-in-Chief  said  to  him,  '  Pray  don't 
allow  my  refusal  to  advance  at  once  to  prevent  your 
going  on  with  your  own  troops.'  The  Frenchman  jumped 
at  the  idea,  and,  accepting  the  offer  with  eagerness, 
soon  put  his  troops — who  by  this  time  had  come  up — 
in  motion  along  the  Tang-Koo  causeway,  his  artillery  in 
front.  When  he  came  within  gunshot  of  the  enemy's 
works  he  began  an  artillery  duel  with  the  Chinaman  at  long 
bowls  which  he  carried  on  for  some  time.  The  determination 
of  our  allies  soon  oozed  out,  and  they  returned  before  long, 
having  done  nothing  more  than  expend  some  gun  ammunition 
most  uselessly.  We  all  bivouacked  for  the  night  where  we 
were ;  few  had  even  a  blanket.  I  had  nothing  but  what  I 
stood  in,  good  cord  breeches  and  hessian  boots,  which 
although  the  best  dress  in  the  world  for  day  work  are  not, 
if  made  to  fit  closely,  by  any  means  the  most  agreeable  cos- 
tume for   '  soft   repose.'     Close  by  where  we  bivouacked 

42 


A    CAVALRY    RECONNAISSANCE 

were  immense  stacks  of  hay  and  straw,  so  that  after  all 
neither  I  nor  my  horse  fared  at  all  badly.  Indeed,  untU  the 
heavy  dews  wet  me  through  towards  morning,  I  slept  better 
than  I  had  done  for  several  days. 

"The  next  morning — August  13,  i860— I  was  sent  out 
with  some  cavalry  to  reconnoitre  up  the  river,  but  I  could 
obtain  no  information  worth  having.  By  the  evening  of 
the  13th  aU  was  ready  or  in  train  for  the  attack  on 
Tang-Koo,  and  two  bridges  were  thrown  across  the 
canals  to  enable  us  to  get  guns  on  to  the  firm  ground 
lying  to  the  south  of  the  causeway  leading  to  that 
place  from  Sinho.  During  the  night  a  large  working 
party  threw  up  a  trench  at  480  yards  from  the  enemy's 
works,  which  I  have  marked  A  in  the  plan.  Thence  we 
could  worry  lohn  Chinaman  well  with  our  rifles.  The 
weather,  which  had  off  and  on  been  bad  ever  since  we  landed 
at  Peh-Tang  on  the  ist  until  we  left  that  place  on  the  12th, 
was  now  lovely  ;  fine  clear  days  with  a  clouded  sky  like  that 
of  England,  thus  affording  good  protection  from  the  sun 
to  those  who  were  aU  day  exposed  to  its  rays  :  no  ill  effects 
were  therefore  experienced  from  that  great  Eastern  enemy 
of  Europeans.  Our  nights  were  just  pleasantly  cool,  and 
when  in  a  tent  one  blanket  over  you  at  night  was  com- 
fortable. Strange  to  say,  during  our  stay  at  Peh-Tang  it 
rained  regularly  every  third  day,  and  the  rule  had  held  good 
also  for  some  days  before  we  landed.  In  consequence,  many 
predicted  that  the  14th  would  not  be  an  exception  to  this 
local  law  of  nature,  the  nth  having  been  very  wet.  I  am 
glad  to  say  the  weatherwise,  and  those  who  had  formulated 
laws  upon  imperfect  observations  of  nature,  were  wrong  in 
this  instance  :  their  prophecies  were  delusive. 

"  We   were  all  under  arms  about  4  a.m.  on  the  14th ; 

43 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

the  sky  looked  very  promising ;  the  day  dawned  upon 
us  bright  and  glad.  The  first  few  rays  of  the  sun 
sparlded  on  our  bayonets  and  warmed  us  all  pleasantly. 
The  sight  was  fine  as  day  broke  upon  our  prepara- 
tions for  attack,  and  was  calculated  to  rouse  the 
spirits  of  even  the  most  phlegmatic  amongst  us.  It  is 
moments  such  as  these  that  repay  us  soldiers  for  the  many 
inevitable  hardships  and  disappointments  experienced  in 
all  campaigns,  although  they  seldom  figure  in  the  published 
narratives  of  such  events  ;  they  are  generally  kept  well  in 
the  background.  They  are  ignored  by  the  author,  who 
wishes  to  throw  a  golden  hue  over  the  camp  scenes  he 
describes,  and  to  surround  the  soldier's  life  with  a  halo  in 
the  brilliancy  of  which  all  that  is  disagreeable  is  lost  to 
sight. 

•'  Our  troops  were  quickly  in  their  places.  With  the  guns 
in  front  we  made  up  a  total  of  twenty-four,  and  the  French 
had  twelve  more.  The  French,  who  were  on  our  left, 
rested  their  left  on  the  Sinho-Tang-Koo  causeway  :  we  were 
on  their  right  and  rested  our  extreme  right  on  the  Pei-Ho. 
The  troops  of  the  two  allied  nations  thus  formed  one  long 
line,  filling  up  the  space  between  the  causeway  and  the 
river.  From  the  little  village  with  the  long  name  marked 
on  the  plan  as  having  had  some  junks  burned  there,  the 
Celestials  opened  their  first  fire  upon  us  from  a  couple  of 
guns  :  we  replied  with  six,  but  did  not  succeed  in  silencing 
them  for  some  time,  and,  before  we  did  silence  them,  they 
had  opened  from  another  battery  lower  down  marked  B. 
A  few  of  our  sailors  with  a  small  boat  managed  to  land  near 
the  first  battery,  and,  finding  it  deserted,  spiked  the  guns 
and  set  fire  to  the  junks  there,  these  last  forming  almost  a 
part  of  the  battery. 

44 


OUR    GOOD    ARTILLERY    PRACTICE 

"  August  27.  I  have  been  so  interrupted  and  have  so 
much  surveying  and  drawing  to  do,  that  I  have  not  had 
time  to  finish  this  letter  before.  AU  yesterday,  from  early 
mom  until  late,  I  was  drawing  ;  I  had  to  make  two  large 
plans  (four  inches  to  the  mile),  one  for  His  Royal  Highness 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  and  the  other  for  the  Quarter- 
Master-General  at  home.  Every  moment  not  engaged  in 
drawing  was  spent  in  surveying  :  everything  had  to  be  done 
against  time  to  be  ready  for  the  post  to  England  which  closed 
here  last  night. 

"  I  am  the  only  officer  at  headquarters  who  can  draw, 
so  my  hands  are  always  fuU.  Then  dear  old  General  Grant 
is  a  terrible  man  for  plans  and  sends  copies  to  all  sorts  of 
people.  Fortunately  for  me  I  got  the  enclosed  little  sketch 
struck  off  in  our  press,  and  have  thus  saved  myself  much 
labour.  It  was,  however,  so  badly  done  that  making  the 
necessary  corrections  in  the  copies  struck  off  takes  up  a 
considerable   amount   of   time. 

"  I  shall  now  resume  my  narrative  where  I  left  it. 
After  the  Chinese  batteries  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Pei- 
Ho  were  well  accounted  for,  and  the  French — who 
were  late — had  come  up — the  whole  line  advanced,  the 
second  English  division  remaining  in  rear  as  a  reserve. 
The  advancing  line  consisted  of  a  line  of  battalion 
columns.  When  we  had  reached  within  about  1,000 
yards  of  the  enemy's  entrenchments  we  opened  by  a 
heavy  fire  upon  those  parts  of  the  enemy's  works  where 
their  batteries  were  and  from  which  they  were  firing  upon 
us.  Our  artillery  practice  was  beautiful ;  nothing  could 
be  better  than  the  accuracy  with  which  our  Armstrong 
guns  fired.  Our  skirmishers  in  the  trench  on  our  right 
did  their  best  to  pick  off  the  Chinese  gunners,  but  notwith- 

45 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

standing  all  the  uncomfortable  missiles  we  brought  to  bear 
upon  them,  they  still  stuck  to  their  guns  like  men  ;  although 
they  made  shockingly  bad  practice,  their  pluck  was  undeni- 
able, and  would  have  done  credit  to  the  best  disciplined 
troops  of  Europe.  On  the  extreme  left  of  their  entrench- 
ments, where  they  rested  on  the  Pei-Ho,  the  place  we  had 
selected  for  our  attack,  there  was  a  Chinese  battery  which 
the  long-tailed  gentlemen  served  manfully  until  gun  after 
gun  was  knocked  over  or  broken  by  our  heavy  fire  ;  by 
degrees  we  advanced  our  guns  towards  the  enemy's  entrench- 
ments until  at  last  they  were  only  about  400  yards  from 
them.  Our  infantry  was  then  brought  to  the  front,  and  in 
about  five  minutes  the  Union  Jack  of  England  was  flying 
from  the  top  of  the  walls. 

"  Our  assaulting  column  had  to  scramble  over  a  wet 
canal  with  extremely  muddy  and  slippery  sides.  Just 
close  to  the  river  there  was  a  spot  where  the  advance 
was  made  with  greater  ease ;  at  other  places  the 
ditch  to  be  crossed  in  our  front  would  have  required 
bridges.  Our  allies  the  French  were  all  this  time  peg- 
ging away  with  their  guns  at  the  gateway  on  the  cause- 
way. They  had  to  throw  a  bridge  over  the  two  wet  ditches 
which  lay  between  them  and  the  Chinese  works.  We  were 
inside  for  a  good  ten  minutes  before  the  French  tricolour 
was  hoisted  up  and  their  firing  had  ceased.  When  we 
entered  the  place  the  enemy  bolted  ;  some  threw  themselves 
into  the  river  and  tried  to  swim  across,  and  a  few  succeeded  ; 
others  crossed  in  boats.  The  bulk  of  their  force,  however, 
was  to  be  seen  streaming  along  the  causeway  which  I  have 
marked  on  the  plan  as  leading  down  towards  Takoo,  where 
they  used  to  have  a  boat  bridge  across  the  river.  We  could 
do  no  more  that  day,  as  immediately  beyond  us  lay  the 

46 


THE   CHINESE   MAKE   SOME   PRISONERS 

strong  forts,  said  to  be  impregnable,  from  which  a  heavy  fire 
opened  upon  all  who  approached  them. 

"  Sir  H.  Grant  determined  to  await  the  arrival  of  his 
heavy  guns  from  Peh-Tang,  and  to  bring  up  ten  days' 
provision  before  he  moved  any  further  from  his  base 
of  supphes.  This  was  very  necessary,  for  in  the  event 
of  bad  weather  our  line  of  communications  with  the  rear 
would  have  become  impracticable  even  for  horses,  so 
easily  is  this  extremely  flat  country  flooded  by  even  a 
few  hours'  heavy  rain. 

"  I  do  not  think  I  mentioned  that  during  our  advance 
on  the  I2th  a  few  of  our  men  who  were  straggling  in  rear 
were  cut  off  by  the  Tartar  cavalry.  The  party  that 
fell  into  the  enemy's  hands  consisted  of  two  men  of 
the  British  infantry,  who  were  doing  duty  with  the 
Chinese  coolie  corps,  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  of  these 
coolies  and  a  couple  of  Madras  sappers.  Strange  to  say, 
these  men,  or  rather  most  of  them,  were  returned  to 
us  under  a  flag  of  truce  between  the  15th  and  the  20th. 
One  of  the  English  soldiers,  the  Chinamen  said,  had  died, 
also  one  of  the  Madras  sappers.  The  coolies  had  had  their 
tails  cut  off  and  the  English  soldier  sent  back  had  evidently 
had  his  hands  tied  tightly  with  cords.  His  story  was  extremely 
vague  :  indeed,  when  his  evidence  was  taken,  he  was  still 
so  much  under  the  influence  of  excitement  and  fear  that 
we  could  make  nothing  out  of  him.  He  said,  however,  that 
the  other  man  had  been  killed  because  he  would  not  go 
through  the  customary  Chinese  ceremony  of  kow-towing  to  the 
great  mandarin  when  taken  into  his  presence.  This  ceremony 
consists — as  I  daresay  you  know — in  knocking  your  forehead 
nine  times  against  the  ground.  This  story  of  the  soldier 
I  believe  to  be  untrue,  the  fact  being  that  this  party,  who 

47 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

were  in  charge  of  some  rum  kegs,  having  nearly  all  become 
drunk,  began  to  straggle  and  were  thus  taken  prisoners.  One 
coolie  escaped  at  the  time,  whose  story  corroborated  this 
view  of  the  affair  :  he  said  that  one  of  the  two  soldiers  had 
died  from  the  effects  of  drink. 

"  From  August  15  to  20  every  one  was  busy  at  getting 
up  stores  from  the  rear.  The  road  between  the  army  and 
Peh-Tang  was  constantly  covered  with  every  sort  of  cart, 
baggage  animals,  etc.,  all  strugghng  to  the  front  with  baggage, 
big  guns,  ammunition,  forage,  etc.,  etc.  A  boat  bridge  was 
begun  at  D,  across  the  Pei-Ho,  as  the  French  were  all  for 
operating  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river.  When  Sir  Hope 
Grant  announced  his  intention  of  attacking  the  north  forts 
and  taking  them  first,  General  Montauban  was  very  wroth, 
doing  all  in  his  power  to  try  and  dissuade  him  from  the 
operation.  The  whole  French  staff  were  also  much  excited 
on  the  subject,  and  propounded  fine  axioms  and  theories 
of  war,  to  all  of  which,  as  also  at  last  to  General  Montauban's 
official  remonstrance  against  our  proposed  plan,  Sir  Hope 
Grant,  to  my  delight,  turned  a  deaf  ear.  His  remonstrance 
reaUy  amounted  to  saying  that  he  did  not  want  the  French 
at  all,  and  was  quite  prepared  to  take  the  forts  by  himself. 
The  French  general  could  not,  of  course,  agree  to  his  doing 
this,  so  he  replied  that,  '  having  placed  his  remonstrance 
against  the  English  general's  plan  on  record  he  was  prepared 
to  accompany  and  assist  his  ally  with  troops.' 

"  Up  to  August  20,  my  time  was  mostly  spent  in  making 
reconnaissances,  and  in  proceeding  with  my  survey,  which, 
extending  over  many  miles  of  country,  was  a  work  of  time 
and  labour.  Meantime  all  the  civilian  newspaper  writers 
and  other  hangers  on  about  the  camp,  amateurs  and  people 
of  that  sort,  were  daily  crying  out,  '  Oh,  why  don't  we  push 

48 


CIVILIANS    ACCUSE    US    OF    DELAY 

on  ' ;  '  the  forts  would  fall  at  once  if  attacked  '  ;  '  You 
might  take  them  with  a  hundred  men  ' — and  all  sorts  of 
similar  rubbish  in  which  those  who  have  no  responsibihty 
and  who  take  no  part  in  the  fighting  themselves  are  always 
so  fond  of  indulging.  Always  on  such  occasions  they  are 
ready  with  grumblings  of  this  nature  :  even  Lord  Elgin, 
who  joined  the  camp  on  the  19th,  seemed  to  think  our  delay 
was  absurd,  so  confident  were  all  those  supposed  to  be  well 
versed  in  Chinese  manners  and  customs  that  we  should  have 
no  difiiculty  in  taking  the  forts. 

"Against  all  this  clamour  Sir  Hope  held  his  own, 
treating  it  with  the  contempt  it  deserved.  It  was 
a  trying  position  to  be  placed  in,  with  this  growHng  crowd 
round  him  caUing  out  for  an  immediate  advance, 
whilst  the  French  on  the  other  hand  condemned  and 
protested  against  his  plan  of  operations.  Sir  Hope  stuck 
to  his  own  original  plan,  and  no  man  was  ever  better  repaid 
than  he  has  been  for  his  firmness.  On  August  19  and  20 
our  engineers  were  employed  in  making  the  road  leading  out 
of  Tang-Koo,  which  I  have  marked  on  the  plan.  It  had  to 
be  taken  across  aU  sorts  of  bad  ground,  besides  a  great  num- 
ber of  deep  canals  connected  with  the  salt  works  surrounding 
the  place.  On  the  night  of  the  20th  our  batteries  marked 
on  the  plan  were  thrown  up,  and  the  second  division  was 
moved  down  to  be  ready  for  work  the  following  morning. 
The  enemy  kept  throwing  fire  balls  all  through  the  night, 
which  reminded  one  of  Cremome,  but  being  very  indifferent 
shots  they  did  not  profit  much  thereby. 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  21st,  as  soon  as  day  broke,  about 
4.30  a.m.,  our  batteries  opened  fire,  the  enemy  firing  weU 
in  return.  I  forgot  to  mention  that  Admiral  Hope  had 
written   officially    to   our  general    asking   him  if  he   con- 

voL.  II.  49  E 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

sidered  it  necessary  that  the  gunboats  should  go  in  at 
the  same  time,  adding  that  to  do  so  '  would  entail  a  great 
loss  of  life.'  This  the  wUy  sailor  did,  we  thought,  not 
from  dislike  to  losing  men,  but  simply  because  he 
wished  to  throw  the  responsibility  of  any  loss  that  might 
be  incurred  upon  our  general,  believing  that  Sir  Hope  Grant 
would  say  that  he  wished  the  gunboats  to  co-operate  in  the 
attack.  Sir  Hope's  reply  must  have  been  disappointing, 
for  he  answered  officially  that  he  was  quite  prepared  to  take 
the  forts  by  himself.  However,  the  gunboats  drawn  up  in 
line  made  their  appearance  off  the  forts  at  daybreak  on  the 
2ist,  keeping,  however,  well  out  of  range,  only  two  English 
and  two  French  gunboats  opening  fire  on  the  forts. 

"  By  6  a.m.  two  large  magazines  in  the  forts  we  were 
attacking  exploded,  one  in  the  large  fort  and  the  other  in  the 
smaU  one  on  the  north  bank.  Our  fire  was  maintained 
steadily  until  nearly  8  a.m.,  when  the  guns  of  the  fort  marked 
K,  which  bore  directly  on  us,  were  all  silenced,  although  the 
defenders  still  kept  up  a  heavy  fire  from  jingalls  and  small 
wall  pieces.  Our  infantry  then  advanced  under  a  heavy  fire  of 
musketry  opened  upon  us  from  the  walls.  I  give  you  on  the 
back  of  the  plan  a  rough  sketch  showing  the  defences  in  profile 
at  the  point  where  our  columns  attacked.  We  attacked  the 
fort  in  the  rear  where  the  Chinamen  had  not  constructed  for- 
midable works  like  those  they  had  thrown  up  towards  the  sea, 
where  they  expected  to  be  attacked.  The  leading  men  of  the 
storming  parties  had  to  get  across  the  two  wet  ditches,  half 
swimming  and  half  scrambling.  The  French  attacked  at  a 
less  formidable  point  than  we  did  :  we  attacked  at  the  gate 
where  there  was  a  drawbridge,  the  French  made  for  the  south- 
west corner  of  the  fort,  where  the  fire  was  naturall}''  less 
heavy  than  elsewhere,  as  they  were  thus  opposite  a  salient 

50 


THE    ASSAULT 

angle  unprovided  with  any  flank  defence.  The  French  got 
across  the  second  ditch  before  our  men,  on  whom  the  heavy 
fire  was  telhng,  so  much  so  that  when  I  went  up  with  our 
small  pontoons  to  help  to  form  a  bridge  across  the  first 
ditch,  I  could  scarcely  get  along  the  small  narrow  causeway 
which  led  to  it  owing  to  the  number  of  our  dead  and  wounded 
who  lay  on  the  road.  The  dead  I  was  obliged  to  have  thrown 
off  the  road  on  to  the  banks  at  its  side  to  clear  a  path  for  the 
party  carrying  the  pontoons.  A  round  shot  then  went 
through  one  of  these  pontoons,  causing  some  delay,  and  the 
first  men  over  the  outer  ditch  were  some  time  before  they 
could  cut  the  rope  of  the  drawbridge  over  the  inner  ditch  ;  the 
consequence  was  that  our  men,  crowded  together  along  the 
narrow  causeway,  were  exposed  to  a  very  nasty  fire. 

"  By  this  time  the  French  had  got  some  few  ladders  under 
the  walls,  but  as  fast  as  they  placed  them  for  mounting  the 
defenders  inside  knocked  them  down,  and  they  kept  throwing 
six  and  twelve-pounder  shot,  which  are  unpleasant  missiles 
even  when  thrown  with  the  hand  if  they  light  on  the  top  of 
the  head.  However,  determined  men  are  not  to  be  kept 
back  in  this  fashion,  and  every  second  saw  the  numbers 
under  the  walls  increased.  Indeed,  it  was  the  safest  place 
to  be  in,  as  no  fire  could  reach  there,  and,  barring  the  cold 
shot  thrown  over  by  hand,  nothing  could  well  touch  you. 
Whilst  the  storming  parties  were  thus  struggling  across 
the  two  wet  ditches,  our  Armstrong  guns  were  making 
admirable  practice  just  a  few  feet  over  our  heads,  actually 
knocking  the  wall  about  so  that  portions  of  it  fell  upon  our 
men's  heads.  At  last  a  French  drummer  struggled  up  a 
ladder  and  reached  the  top,  where  he  waved  a  tricolour  and 
gave  a  loud  cheer.  It  was  taken  up  by  all  outside,  but 
before  it  ceased  the  poor  plucky  boy  fell,  shot  dead.     Just 

51 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

at  the  same  moment,  the  young  ensign  carrying  the  Queen's 
Colours  of  the  67th  Regiment  (the  storming  regiment), 
having  got  through  the  wet  ditch  as  best  he  could,  followed 
by  a  few  men,  scrambled  up  the  woodwork  near  the  gate 
and  so  on  to  the  parapet,  and  then  shook  out  the  colour  he 
was  carrying.  The  few  men  behind  him  could  only  follow 
by  twos  and  threes  ;  still  all  in  rear  pressed  on,  and  if  the 
French  colours  waved  a  few  seconds  first  on  the  walls,  ours 
was  the  first  in  the  fort  and  on  the  one  large  raised  cavalier 
forming  part  of  the  front  face  of  the  work  (we  had  attacked 
the  fort  in  rear).  A  long  ramp  or  slope  led  up  this  cavalier, 
the  top  of  which  was  covered  with  the  enemy.  The  young 
ensign  referred  to  and  a  few  men  charged  up  this  slope  in 
amongst  the  defenders,  who  succeeded  in  shooting  him  in 
two  or  three  places.  Our  bayonets,  however,  soon  cleared 
them  out,  and  the  work  was  ours,  aU  having  behaved  most 
gallantly  ;  indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  English, 
French  or  Chinamen  earned  and  deserved  the  most  honour  : 
I  should  be  inclined  to  give  the  palm  to  the  last  named. 
"  The  poor  wretched  Chinamen,  as  they  bolted  out  of  the 
fort  to  try  and  reach  the  river,  or  the  other  fort  beyond,  were 
shot  down  in  numbers  ;  some,  falling  on  the  bamboo  spikes 
placed  round  the  outside  of  the  work  to  strengthen  it,  were 
impaled  upon  them,  and  many  were  drowned  in  the  ditches. 
There  were  about  200  dead  Chinamen  lying  in  and  about 
the  fort,  and  for  a  long  distance  away  we  could  see  the 
wounded  trying  to  drag  their  broken  limbs  after  them,  and 
the  river  is  still  most  offensive  from  the  number  of  dead 
floating  about  in  it.  I  estimate  the  enemy's  loss  in  this  first 
fort  at  over  1,000,  for  numbers  of  the  defenders  were  buried 
by  the  explosion  when  their  principal  magazine  blew  up 
early  in  the  morning,  and  most  of  their  wounded  had  been 

52 


RECONNAISSANCE    DUTY 

carried  off  during  the  fight.  The  Chinese  general  who  com- 
manded in  the  fort  was  killed,  and  they  say  themselves  they 
have  suffered  severely. 

"  Immediately  after  the  fall  of  the  place,  I  was  sent  forward 
with  a  smaU  guard  to  reconnoitre  the  ground  between  it 
and  the  further  northern  fort.  Of  course  it  was  my  business 
to  go  up  as  near  as  I  could  get  to  the  further  work  ;  not  a 
pleasant  mission  to  be  engaged  on,  for  if  you  go  up  close 
you  are  safe  to  be  shot  in  such  a  dead  level  country,  where 
there  is  no  cover  whatever,  and  if  you  do  not  go  up  close 
you  can  see  or  learn  next  to  nothing.  Under  such  circum- 
stances I  always  use  my  own  discretion,  and  risk  nothing 
more  than  I  believe  to  be  necessary  for  the  due  performance 
of  my  task.  In  this  instance  my  business  was  to  obtain  in- 
formation as  to  the  nature  of  the  ground  between  the  two 
forts,  and  of  what  the  defences  of  the  further  forts  consisted. 

"  I  advanced  by  myself,  desiring  my  guard  to  keep  a 
couple  of  hundred  yards  behind  me,  scattered  about  in 
skirmishing  order,  so  as  to  avoid  the  effects  of  the  fire  as 
much  as  possible.  I  had  reached  a  point  within  about  four 
or  five  hundred  yards  of  the  work  when,  to  my  surprise, 
the  enemy  suddenly  ceased  to  fire  upon  me  and  my  party. 
Upon  looking  round,  I  saw  white  flags  hoisted  on  aU  the 
forts,  and  our  guns  at  once  ceased  firing  also.  This  was  a 
grand  opportunity  for  me  to  spy  out  the  information  I 
required,  so  I  walked  steadily  up  to  the  ditch  of  the  fort  and 
made  a  sketch  of  the  defences.  The  place  was  swarming 
with  men  who  kept  shouting  at  me  and  evidently  by  their 
signs  warning  me  off  the  premises.  At  last  they  sent  out  a 
man  with  a  white  flag,  and  our  garrison  in  the  fort  we  had 
taken  sent  an  interpreter  to  meet  them,  and  to  ask  what 
was  wanted.   The  only  answer  we  could  obtain  was,  that  the 

53 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

commandant  had  hoisted  a  white  flag  because  the  forts  on 
the  south  bank  had  done  so,  but  that  he  could  not  surrender 
the  place  without  orders  from  his  superior.  A  boat  then 
came  across  the  river  with  letters  for  Lord  Elgin  and  Baron 
Gros,  but  sending  no  message  to  the  general.  A  message 
was  therefore  sent  back  by  us  to  say  that  unless  the  forts 
were  surrendered  by  ii  a.m.  our  guns  would  reopen.  When 
this  message  was  sent  to  the  fort  immediately  in  our  front, 
summoning  it  to  surrender,  the  fellow  who  met  our  flag  of 
truce  was  most  cheeky.  He  said  he  would  not  give  up  the 
fort,  and  that  if  we  were  able  we  had  better  come  and  take 
it.  Our  guns  were  then  hauled  into  position  and  our  troops 
pushed  forward  to  the  ground  marked  L  :  all  was  being  pre- 
pared for  another  struggle,  when  a  message  arrived  from 
Governor-General  Ho,  who  is  the  highest  functionary  in 
these  parts,  asking  to  negotiate.  As  ii  a.m.  drew  near  and 
no  fire  was  opened  upon  us,  it  seemed  as  if  the  garrison  had 
vacated  the  fort  in  front  of  us.  Our  troops  consequently 
pushed  on  and  entered  it.  There  were  still  some  2,000  of  the 
garrison  huddled  together  in  a  corner  of  the  work,  but  with 
no  mihtary  badge  about  them,  and  nothing  to  distinguish 
them  from  any  ordinary  Chinese  peasant. 

"  That  evening  the  south  forts  were  vacated,  and  next 
morning  our  messenger  returned  from  Mr.  Ho,  saying  he 
surrendered  everything.  And  so  ends  the  third  China  War, 
and  also  this  hurried  letter,  of  which  I  am  thoroughly 
ashamed,  but  I  send  it,  nevertheless,  as  I  presume  you  will 
think  it  is  better  than  no  letter  at  all.  I  could  write  for 
another  hour  if  I  had  time,  but  I  have  not.  I  must  try  to 
smuggle  this  into  the  mail  bag  somehow  or  other.  This 
letter  is  of  course  strictly  private,  as  also  the  enclosed  plan. 

"(Signed)  G.   J.   WOLSELEY." 

54 


ADVA  NCE      OF    1 

ALLIED    AR 

from   Peytang  tc   "^-^ 


auLF 


WE    MARCH    UPON    TIEN-TSIN 

No  time  was  lost  in  pushing  forward  our  army  to  Tien-tsin 
and  every  one  was  overjoyed  to  leave  the  salt  fiats  and 
hideous  neighbourhood  we  had  been  in  since  landing.  Tien- 
tsin had  lately  been  surround  with  a  great  line  of  works 
that  must  have  entailed  a  vast  amount  of  labour,  as  they 
were  at  least  fourteen  miles  in  circumference,  extending 
above  and  below  the  city  to  both  banks  of  the  river.  The 
Grand  Canal  there  joins  the  Pei-Ho. 

Two  imperial  commissioners  of  high  rank  reached  it  from 
Pekin  a  few  days  after  our  arrival.  Peace  was  said  by  all 
our  own  "  pohticals  "  to  be  a  certainty,  and  we  soldiers 
began  to  speculate  as  to  the  date  when  we  should  reach 
home.^  But  it  soon  transpired  that  Lord  Elgin  had  been 
taken  in,  for  when  pressed  for  their  imperial  instructions 
to  treat  with  us,  they  had  none  to  produce.  Our  ambas- 
sador resolved  therefore  to  push  on  to  Tung-chow,  and 
announced  he  would  receive  no  imperial  messenger  until 
he  had  reached  that  place.  A  battalion  of  the  Royal  Scots 
and  one  of  the  York  and  Lancaster  Regiment,  with  some 
guns,  reached  Tien-tsin  on  August  25,  and  our  cavalry  brigade 
the  day  follomng  ;  the  first  division  on  September  2,  and  the 
second  division  on  the  5th  of  that  month.  By  papers  subse- 
quently captured  we  discovered  that  the  Emperor  never 
intended  these  negotiations  to  lead  to  anything  important, 

1  In  a  published  letter  from  Tien-tsin  of  August  26,  1 860,  to  his 
wife,  Mr.  Parkes  wrote  : 

"  We  marched  out  of  Peh-Tang  on  the  12th  and  we  marched  into 
Tien-Tsin  on  the  25  th,  and  I  do  not  now  expect  to  hear  another  gun 
fired.  Imperial  commissioners  are  posting  do\vn  from  Pekin,  and 
with  proper  management  on  our  part,  diplomacy,  which  wiU  now 
come  into  play,  wUl,  we  should  hope,  be  as  successful  as  the  sword." 

All  our  diplomats  throughout  this  war  were  too  sanguine,  and  their 
over  confidence  in  the  near  approach  of  peace,  %\'ith  a  less  determined 
general  at  the  head  of  our  army,  might  have  led  to  our  destruction. 

55 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

his  object  being  merely  to  gain  time.  They  fondly  hoped 
to  prolong  negotiations  into  the  cold  weather,  beUeving  that 
our  constitutions  would  not  stand  their  winter.  Our 
abortive  negotiations  afforded  us  soldiers  much  amusement. 
We  aU  asked  why  our  diplomats  had  not  demanded  that 
these  sham  commissioners  should  produce  their  written 
credentials  immediately  upon  their  arrival. 

On  September  8  our  troops  began  to  move  towards  Tung- 
chow,  distant  from  Tien-tsin  by  road  between  sixty-five 
and  seventy  miles,  and  nearly  twenty  miles  from  Pekin. 
The  French,  about  3,000  strong,  started  two  days  later. 
Transport  was  our  one  serious  difficulty,  but  we  had  obtained 
from  the  Chinese  authorities  in  Tien-tsin  a  large  number  of 
good  carts  drawn  by  two  or  three  mules  each, 

I  was  now  given  the  detached  duty  of  reconnoitring  and 
mapping  the  country  as  we  advanced.  There  were  no 
natural  features  to  be  sketched,  except  the  Pei-Ho,  which 
twisted  about  in  a  most  wrigghng  fashion.  The  country  was, 
in  fact,  a  dead  level,  covered  chiefly  with  standing  maize  and 
miUet,  both  of  which  grew  to  a  height  of  about  eight  or  nine 
feet.  I  was  given  as  an  escort  a  small  party  of  Punjaubee 
cavalry  under  a  native  officer,  Mr.  Swinhoe,  of  our  Chinese 
consular  service  as  an  interpreter,  and  Lieutenant,  now 
General  Sir  R.  Harrison,  K.C.B.,  as  an  assistant.  He  was 
an  excellent  assistant,  an  admirable  officer  and  a  right  good 
fellow  all  round.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  have  such  a  gentleman 
with  me.  For  the  use  of  myself  and  party  I  was  allowed 
so  many  mule  carts  with  their  Chinese  drivers.  I  made 
them  over  to  the  care  of  my  native  officer,  telling  him  that 
his  chance  of  reaching  the  far-famed  City  of  Pekin  depended 
upon  the  strictness  of  the  watch  he  kept  over  them. 

In  the  early  morning,  before  we  began  our  second  march 

56 


CHINESE    DRIVERS    DESERT 

from  Tien-tsin,  I  heard  a  considerable  commotion  in  camp, 
and  upon  inquiring  the  cause  was  told  that  every  Chinese 
driver  had  decamped  during  the  violent  thunderstorm  and 
heavy  downpour  of  the  preceding  night.  I  sent  for  my 
duffadar  of  cavalry  and  said,  "  Are  your  mules  and  drivers 
safe  ?  "  With  a  broad  grin  he  answered,  "  Yes,  sahib." 
Mine  were,  I  found,  the  only  drivers  and  hired  mules  in 
camp.  Subsequently  I  asked  him  what  measures  he  had 
taken  to  secure  them.  He  said,  "  You  told  me,  sahib,  you 
would  hold  me  responsible  for  the  mules  and  drivers,  so  at 
nightfall  I  collected  the  drivers  in  my  tent,  tied  all  their 
pigtails  together,  and  fastened  the  knot  thus  formed  to  my 
tent  pole,  beside  which  I  slept."  Afterwards,  whenever  these 
drivers  had  occasion  to  go  about  the  lines,  I  found  he  sent 
with  them  a  sowar  with  his  tulwar  drawn.  They  really 
behaved  very  well,  and  I  know  the  others  had  bolted  simply 
because  they  dared  not  disobey  the  order  to  do  so  they  had 
received  from  the  Tien-tsin  authorities,  from  whom,  by  the 
bye,  we  had  obtained  the  mules  and  drivers  in  question. 


57 


CHAPTER  XXX 

Chinese  Perfidy — Sir    Harry  Parkes  and   others 
Treacherously  taken  Prisoners 

MANY  attempts  were  made  by  the  Pekin  Government 
in  the  hope  of  inducing  us  to  fall  back  upon  Tien- 
tsin and  negotiate  there.  They  must  indeed  have  thought 
we  were  simple  people  when  they  made  such  a  proposal 
after  their  many  previous  attempts  to  deceive  us.  They 
even  requested  us  to  leave  our  guns  behind,  alleging  they 
would  "  disturb  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  "  if  we  took 
them  near  "  the  great  capital." 

On  September  13  we  reached  Ho-see-Woo,  which  is 
about  half-way  between  Tien-tsin  and  Pekin.  The  country 
round  it  is  undulating,  prosperous,  well  cultivated,  and 
pleasant  to  look  upon.  The  villages  we  passed  through 
were  well  built,  and  surrounded  with  nice  gardens  and 
orchards,  which  supplied  us  with  quantities  of  very  fine 
grapes  and  vegetables  of  many  kinds.  At  first  the  people 
were  extremely  civil,  bringing  in  their  garden  produce 
for  sale.  But  upon  nearing  Ho-see-Woo  their  attitude 
changed.  They  fled  at  our  approach,  and  we  found  that 
town  practically  deserted.  Notwithstanding  the  help 
afforded  us  by  the  river  as  a  line  of  communication  as  far 
as  Ho-see-Woo,  the  transport  difficulties  in  front  were 
very  serious.     But  the  Imperial  commissioner,  the  Prince 

58 


OUR    AMBASSADOR    DECEIVED 

of  E.  and  his  colleagues  seemed  so  bent  upon  peace 
it  was  difficult  to  believe  there  was  any  more  fighting  yet 
in  store  for  us.  To  ease  our  supply  difficulties  the  second 
division  was  consequently  halted  at  Tien-tsin. 

At  Ho-see-Woo  other  messengers  from  Pekin  reached 
the  allied  embassies,  bringing  despatches  stating  the  terms 
upon  which  the  Pekin  Government  said  they  would  make 
peace.  Some  days  were  lost  in  settling  how  far  the  two 
armies  should  advance,  and  where  the  ambassadors  were 
to  be  housed  pending  the  signing  of  the  treaty.  It  was 
at  last  arranged  that  the  allied  armies  should  advance 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  Chang-kia-wan,  and  there  halt 
in  a  position  the  mandarins  were  to  point  out. 

On  September  i6  Messrs,  Parkes  and  Loch  went  on  to 
Tung-chow  to  prepare  for  Lord  Elgin's  reception  there. 
Colonel  Walker  and  a  commissariat  officer  going  with 
them  to  arrange  details  as  to  the  camps  and  the  supplies 
we  should  require.  At  that  large  city  Mr.  Parkes  had 
a  long  interview  with  the  Prince  of  E.,  one  of  the  highest 
dignitaries  in  the  empire.  The  lying  promises  of  this  great 
prince  apparently  took  in  Mr.  Parkes,  and  all  the  embassy 
civilians  were  so  cock-sure  of  peace  that  our  army  Head- 
quarters accepted  their  announcement  on  the  point. 

According  to  negotiations  now  entered  into  by  Lord 
Elgin  it  was  arranged  that  the  army  should  halt  about 
two  miles  short  of  Chang-kia-wan,  whence  he  was  to  push 
on  to  Tungchow  with  i,ooo  men.  There  the  terms  of 
peace  were  to  be  finally  settled,  and  when  that  was  accom- 
plished, he,  with  the  same  escort,  was  then  to  enter  Pekin 
and  ratify  our  old  treaty.  For  none  of  these  diplomatic 
arrangements  were  the  military  authorities  in  any  way 
whatever  responsible. 

59 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Upon  September  17  our  army  and  1,000  French  troops 
reached  Matow,  where  most  satisfactory  reports  were 
received  from  Mr.  Parkes.  Upon  the  strength  of  these 
assurances  the  army  was  ordered  to  march  about  fifteen 
miles  next  morning  to  Chang-kia-wan,  which  was  about 
the  same  distance  from  Pekin. 

Our  diplomatic  comrades  were  so  certain  that  peace 
was  only  a  matter  of  hours  that,  as  I  had  some  sketching 
work  to  do  in  the  neighbourhood,  I  told  Sir  Hope  I  should 
like,  with  his  permission,  to  stay  for  a  few  hours  behind 
when  the  army  marched  next  morning  at  daybreak  as 
usual.  AU  round  my  own  small  camp  the  maize  though 
ripe  was  still  standing,  but  as  the  army  advanced  next 
morning  the  com  was  found  cut  in  all  directions.  This 
was  regarded  as  somewhat  ominous  on  the  part  of  an 
enemy  whose  army  consisted  chiefly  of  cavalry,  and  the 
feeling  was  strengthened  by  our  advanced  guard  coming 
suddenly  upon  a  Tartar  picket,  who  galloped  off  when 
they  saw  us. 

Whilst  my  breakfast  was  being  prepared  in  the  early 
morning  of  September  18,  I  saw  the  rear  guard  pass  by 
and  take  up  a  position  in  a  little  village  about  a  couple 
of  miles  beyond.  This  was  evidently  done  to  let  the  bag- 
gage get  well  forward  under  its  protection.  It  must  have 
been  about  7  a.m.,  whilst  all  my  party  were  at  breakfast, 
that  a  captain  of  the  King's  Dragoon  Guards  rode  up  to 
say  he  had  been  sent  by  the  officer  commanding  the  rear 
guard  to  tell  me  he  had  received  orders  to  halt  where  he 
was  for  the  present,  as  things  did  not  look  satisfactory 
in  front.  He  wished  me  to  be  on  my  guard  lest  I  might 
possibly  be  cut  off.  I  sent  back  my  best  thanks  to  the 
rear  guard  commander  for  his  kindness,  etc.,  but  I  had 

60 


CUT    OFF    FROM    THE    ARMY 

been  so  thoroughly  led  to  believe  in  peace  by  our  diplo- 
matists, that  I  fear  the  tone  of  my  voice  was  not  in  tune 
with  my  expressions  of  gratitude.  The  Dragoon  galloped 
off  and  I  finished  my  tea.  Whilst  I  was  doing  so  the 
native  officer  of  my  escort  came  to  report  the  presence 
of  a  large  force  of  the  enemy's  cavalry  close  by.  He  drew 
my  attention  to  the  column  of  dust  they  created  as  they 
moved  through  the  very  high  standing  maize  which,  in 
that  extremely  flat  region,  formed  our  horizon  on  all  sides. 
I  understood  the  position  in  an  instant,  and  called  out 
"  Pull  down  your  tent  poles."  The  high  standing  corn 
then  protected  us  from  view,  and  all  was  got  ready  in 
haste  for  a  start.  With  the  exception  of  the  Chinese  drivers 
all  my  party  were  well  mounted,  for  our  servants  rode 
our  spare  horses.  I  found  that  a  very  considerable  body 
of  Tartar  cavalry  was  moving  between  us  and  the  village 
where  our  rear  guard  was  halted.  The  possibility  of  having 
to  sacrifice  our  baggage  and  ride  for  our  lives  seemed  so 
imminent  that  I  filled  my  pockets  and  holster-pipes  with 
our  road  surveys  and  sketches,  determined — come  what 
might — not  to  lose  the  result  of  so  much  care  and  labour. 
We  all  stood  to  our  horses,  ready  to  mount  in  a  moment. 
But  the  eyes  of  the  enemy  were  evidently  so  fixed  upon 
our  rear  guard  that  they  passed  without  discovering  us, 
as  we  were  fairly  protected  from  their  vieAv  by  the  tall, 
standing  crops.  We  were  soon  packed  up  and  en  route, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  we  and  our  impedimenta  had 
joined  the  rear  guard  of  the  army.  Leaving  my  carts 
there  we  pushed  to  the  front  with  all  speed,  and  I  soon 
joined  Sir  Hope  Grant.  I  found  his  progress  barred  by 
a  large  hostile  army  that  covered  a  front  of  about  five 
miles.     Large  bodies  of  Mongohan  horsemen  were  to  be 

6i 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

seen  closing  in  towards  our  flanks,  and  great  batteries  of 
guns  in  front  soon  became  visible.  The  whole  position 
had  been  evidently  carefully  prepared  as  an  ambuscade 
in  which  it  was  expected  to  destroy  us.  But  Sir  Hope 
had  had  too  long  an  experience  in  Eastern  trickery  and 
treachery  to  fall  into  such  a  trap. 

On  that  same  morning  Mr.  Parkes  in  Tung-chow  had  dis- 
covered, from  the  altered  tone  in  which  the  Prince  of  E. 
spoke  to  him,  that  some  treachery  was  being  planned,  and 
that  the  enemy  meant  to  fight.      One  is  prone  to  say — as 
most    of   us   soldiers  did  at   the  time — why  did  not  Mr. 
Parkes  perceive  this  at  an  earlier  date  ?     It  is  easy  to  be 
wise  after  events,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  under  the 
circumstances  there  are  few  civilian  diplomatists  who  would 
not  have  been  similarly  taken  in.     In  treating  with  bar- 
barian nations   during   a  war  all  negotiations   should  be 
carried  on  by  the  general  in  command  of  the  army.     Indeed 
the  one  great  lesson  I  learnt  from  this  Chinese  campaign 
was  that  in  most  wars,  certainly  in  a  war  like  that  of  i860 
in  China,  the  general  to  command  the  army  and  the  am- 
bassador to  make  peace  should  be  one  and  the  same  man. 
To  separate  the  two  functions  is,   according  to  my  ex- 
perience, foUy  gone  mad.    But  it  is  usually  found  desirable 
to   invent  well-paid   and   high-sounding   offices   for  noble 
lords  in  want  of  employment.     The  general  who  is  not 
capable  of  making  a  treaty  of   peace  such  as  that  Lord 
Elgin  had  to  make  in  i860  is  not  fit  to  have  supreme  com- 
mand in  any  war.     I  think  I  may  say  that  none  of  the 
best  known  commanders  in  ancient  or  modem  times  would 
have  been  taken  in  as  Lord  Elgin  was  by  the  Chinese 
ministers  he  had  to  deal  with  throughout  this  campaign. 
Can  we  imagine  a  Caesar,  a  Clive,  a  Napoleon,  a  Welling- 

62 


CPIINESE    TREACHERY 

ton,  an  Outram  suffering  such  clouds  of  dust  to  be  thrown  in 
their  eyes  by  an  enemy  proverbial  for  lying  and  want  of 
faith.  Whilst  feigning  an  earnest  desire  for  peace  aU 
through  the  attendant  negotiations,  these  Chinese  dip- 
lomatists were  plotting  to  hem  us  in  gradually  and  to 
destroy  us  by  overwhelming  military  forces  ?  Had  Sir 
Hope  Grant  been  our  ambassador  as  well  as  Commander- 
in-Chief,  I  am  confident  the  Chinese  ministers  would  not 
have  been  able  to  take  in  a  man  so  long  accustomed  to 
deal  with  Easterns  as  he  was. 

When  Mr.  Parkes  and  all  his  party  were  allowed  to 
leave  Tung-chow  on  the  morning  of  September  i8  they 
made  for  Chang-kia-Wan  in  haste.  They  reached  it  without 
molestation,  but  were  followed  by  a  party  of  Tartar  horse 
until  half-way  between  that  city  and  our  troops,  when 
they  were  stopped.  Mr.  Parkes  was  then  taken  before 
Sang-ko-lin-sin,  dragged  from  his  horse,  made  to  kow- 
tow, and  his  face  rubbed  in  the  dust  at  the  feet  of  that 
Tartar  savage.  The  sowar  who  was  with  Mr.  Parkes 
at  the  time  brought  down  his  lance  to  the  "  charge " 
upon  the  first  sign  of  violence  by  the  Chinese  soldiers, 
and  was  with  difficulty  restrained  from  fighting.  "Oh, 
sahib,"  as  he  afterwards  said  when  released,  "  if  we  had 
only  charged  it  would  have  been  all  right." 

Just  before  the  battle  opened  Mr.  Loch,  with  three 
sowars,  galloped  in  from  the  Chinese  army,  bringing  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Parkes  announcing  that  everything  had 
been  satisfactorily  arranged  with  the  Imperial  commis- 
sioners. But  Mr.  Loch's  own  story  did  not  corroborate 
that  statement.  He  said  that  in  company  with  Colonel 
Walker,  Mr.  Parkes,  our  commissariat  officer,  five  men  of 
the  King's  Dragoon  Guards,  and  four  sowars  he  had  started 

63 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

from  Tung-chow  about  5  a.m.  that  morning,  leaving  behind 
in  that  city  Lieutenant  Anderson  and  his  seventeen  sowars, 
Mr.  de  Norman,  one  of  our  attaches,  and  Mr.  Bowlby,  the 
Times  correspondent.  When  en  route  they  perceived  that 
large  bodies  of  Chinese  troops  were  collecting  about  the 
very  ground  that  had  been  selected  for  our  camp  near 
Chang-kia-wan,  and  that  many  great  batteries  of  guns 
had  been  placed  in  position  where  the  day  before  there 
had  been  neither  troops  nor  guns.  Mr.  Parkes,  the  most 
energetic  and  determined  of  brave  men,  resolved  at  once 
to  go  back  to  Tung-chow  to  ask  its  officials  what  aU  this 
meant.  This  was,  I  think,  an  unfortunate,  an  unwise 
move  on  his  part,  for  everything  looked  as  if  treachery 
was  intended.  He  took  with  him  only  one  man  of  the  party, 
Private  Phipps  of  the  King's  Dragoon  Guards,  a  man 
as  brave  and  as  noble-spirited  as  himself.^  Before  start- 
ing for  Tung-chow  he  arranged  with  Colonel  Walker  that 
he  and  the  rest  of  the  party  should  remain  where  they  were 
to  await  his  return,  except  Mr.  Loch,  who  was  to  ride  on 
to  our  army  to  tell  the  Commander-in-Chief  how  matters 
stood. 

Loch  had  been  an  officer  in  the  East  India  Company's 
Service  before  he  had  taken  to  diplomacy,  and  was  as 
brave  by  nature  as  God  makes  men.  Upon  reaching  our 
army,  and  having  described  the  general  position  to  Sir 
Hope,  he  volunteered  to  return  at  once  to  Chang-kia-wan 
to  coUect  our  people  who  were  still  there  and  bring  them 
back.  Sir  Hope  agreed,  and  said  :  "  I  will  send  Wolseley 
with  you."  Captain  Brabazon,  who  was  standing  close 
by,  said  :  "  Colonel  Wolseley  has  not  yet  come  up,  sir ; 
may  I  go  instead  ?  "     He  went,  never  to  return.     Had 

^  See  page  80. 
64 


MR.    LOCH 

I  been  there  at  the  moment,  I  should  have  been  captured 
and  beheaded  as  he  was  near  the  Pa-U-cheaou  Bridge^ 
very  shortly  afterwards,  whilst  being  taken  as  a  prisoner 
into  Pekin.     How  inscrutable  are  the  ways  of  Providence  ! 

It  was  a  chivalrous  feeling — worthy  of  the  man — that 
prompted  Mr.  Loch  to  return  to  Tung-chow  in  order  to 
hasten  the  departure  of  those  he  had  so  lately  parted  from 
there.2 

Between  lo  and  ii  a.m. — I  had  then  rejoined  Sir  Hope 
Grant — Colonel  Walker  came  galloping  towards  us  with 
his  handful  of  dragoons  and  sowars  behind  him.  From 
him  we  heard  what  follows  :  Whilst  awaiting  in  the  enemy's 
lines  the  return  of  Mr.  Parkes  from  Tung-chow — as  agreed 
upon  between  them  when  they  parted — he  had  kept  moving 
about  to  learn  something  of  the  enemy's  position.  The 
Chinese  troops  began  to  be  uncivil,  and  after  a  time  tried 
to  get  possession  of  his  sword.  Hearing  a  French  officer 
call  to  him  for  help,  he  at  once  went  towards  him.  Finding 
he  had  been  severely  cut  about,  he  took  the  Frenchman's 
hand,  hoping  thus  to  help  him  away.  But  a  rush  was 
made  upon  them  by  some  Chinese  soldiers,  who  first  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  Walker's  sword,  and  then  tried  to 
pull  him  from  his  horse.  In  the  scuffle  the  poor  French 
officer  was  knocked  down  and  murdered.  In  another 
minute  aU  must  have  met  with  the  same  fate  had  they 
stayed  there,  so  calling  his  party  to  ride  for  their  lives, 

^  It  was  only  some  yea.TS  afterwards  that  I  learnt  of  Sir  Hope 
Grant's  intention  to  have  sent  me  into  Tung-chow,  and  of  Brabazon 
having  gone  instead. 

^  The  story  of  these  events  and  of  the  tortures  Sir  Harry  Parkes, 
Mr.  Loch  and  the  other  prisoners  were  subjected  to  in  Pekin  is  told 
in  the  admirable  Life  of  Sir  H.  Parkes,  by  IVIr.  Stanley  Lane-Poole, 
vol.  i.  p.  380. 

VOL.  II.  65  F 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Colonel  Walker  and  those  with  him  cut  their  way  through 
the  crowd.  They  succeeded  in  this,  having  two  only  of 
the  party  wounded  and  one  horse  shot,  although  every 
one  near  seemed  to  fire  at  them  —  even  the  Chinese 
batteries  did  so  as  they  passed  them. 

The  firing  thus  begun  soon  became  general,  and  Sir 
Hope  Grant  deployed  the  force  he  had  immediately  with 
him  for  a  general  advance.  Our  artillery  playing  upon 
the  enemy's  masses  inflicted  heavy  losses  upon  them, 
and  Major  Probyn,  charging  with  the  reckless  daring  that 
has  always  distinguished  him,  cleared  the  front  to  our 
immediate  left.  The  action  which  followed  was  a  brilliant 
success  gained  by  a  small  body  of  Enghsh  and  French  troops 
over  an  enemy  that  had  at  least  20,000  men  and  a  vast 
number  of  guns  in  the  field.  Our  pursuit  extended  for 
about  two  miles  beyond  Chang-kia-wan. 

Sang-ko-lin-sin's  attempt  to  destroy  our  army  by 
treachery  thus  signally  failed,  but  we  had  sustained  a 
grievous — though  fortunately  only  a  temporary — loss  by 
his  capture  of  Mr.  Parkes,  the  moving,  the  indomitable 
spirit  in  all  our  diplomatic  dealings  with  this  shamelessly 
perfidious  enemy. 

So  certain  had  been  our  diplomatists  that  the  war  was 
over  and  peace  would  be  immediately  concluded,  that 
before  we  advanced  that  morning  we  were  asked  to  have 
three  horses  ready  to  convey  a  naval  officer  then  in  camp 
to  Tien-tsin  upon  hearing  from  Mr.  Parkes  at  Tung-chow 
that  everything  had  been  satisfactorily  and  finally  settled. 
He  was  to  sail  at  once  for  Shanghai  to  bring  up  Mr.  Bruce 
in  his  ship.  Although  he  received  the  letter  which  was 
to  have  been  his  sailing  orders,  he  naturally  did  not  start, 
seeing  that  instead  of    making  peace   the  Chinese  army 

66 


NATURE    OF   THE    COUNTRY 

was  about  to  attack  us.  That  night  a  heavy  gloom  hung 
over  us  at  Headquarters,  and  we  all  thought  more  of  the 
gallant  men  then  at  the  mercy  of  our  brutal  enemy  than 
we  did  of  our  victory.  We  did  not  expect  ever  to  see 
any  of  them  again.  As  a  punishment  for  Sang-ko-lin-sin's 
treachery  the  walled  city  of  Chang-kia-wan  was  given 
over  to  loot.  I  have  been  at  the  looting  of  many  places 
but  have  never  taken  part  in  the  operation  myself,  for 
reasons  already  stated. 

The  country  over  which  we  manoeuvred  that  day  was 
highly  cultivated,  chiefly  with  maize,  beans,  and  sweet 
potatoes,  and  it  was  thickly  dotted  with  well-built  villages 
surrounded  by  neatly  kept  orchards  and  gardens.  Hand- 
some groves  of  dark  pine  and  large  curiously  shaped  tombs 
were  to  be  seen  in  all  directions.  There  were  numerous 
monuments,  several  of  which  consisted  of  a  tall  slab  of 
marble  springing  from  a  huge  marble  tortoise,  the  Chinese 
emblem  of  longevity.  The  name  and  virtues  of  the 
individual  in  whose  honour  each  had  been  erected  were 
recorded  thereon. 

Upon  September  19,  the  day  following  these  unfor- 
tunate events,  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Thomas  Wade,  went 
to  Tung-chow  under  a  flag  of  truce  to  demand  the  imme- 
diate release  of  the  English  and  French  who  had  been 
thus  treacherously  captured.  It  was  a  big  city,  and  its 
governor  declared  he  knew  nothing  about  them  ;  he  was 
in  serious  dread  lest  we  should  assault  the  city.  To  have 
done  this  would  have  been  unwise,  as  we  were  pressed 
for  time,  if  our  army  was  to  be  re-embarked  before  the 
country  was  frozen-up  for  the  winter.  We  arranged, 
therefore,  to  spare  it,  and  to  make  it  a  depot  for  stores 
and  supplies.     By  a  cavalry  reconnaissance  of  the  district 

67 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

in  front  of  us  made  on  September  20,  we  found  the  enemy 
were  in  considerable  force  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Pa-li-cheaou,  or  the  eight  li  bridge.^  The  following 
morning — September  21 — we  moved  at  daybreak  to  attack 
them.  The  French  were  to  make  for  that  bridge,  which 
is  a  handsome  marble  structure,  whilst  we  marched  for 
a  wooden  bridge  a  mile  nearer  Pekin.  Both  bridges  spanned 
what  was  once  the  fine  Yung-Leang  Canal  connecting 
the  Pei-Ho  with  the  capital.  Our  cavalry  were  to  make 
a  wide  sweep  to  the  westward,  and  by  attacking  the  enemy's 
right  drive  him  in  upon  our  infantry. 

A  mile's  march  brought  us  in  presence  of  a  large  Chinese 
army,  their  cavalry  stretching  away  to  their  right  as  far 
as  one  could  see.  Their  foot  was  strongly  posted  in  the 
inclosures  and  clumps  of  trees  with  which  the  country 
there  abounded.  Our  cavalry  were  soon  at  work.  The 
enemy's  horse,  which  had  already  suffered  somewhat 
heavily  from  our  guns  and  had  retreated  out  of  range,  now 
moved  as  if  to  envelop  our  left,  but  our  horsemen  made 
for  them  with  a  speed  they  had  not  reckoned  upon.  They 
were  mounted  on  small  ponies,  our  men  on  great  troop 
horses.  The  men  of  the  King's  Dragoon  Guards  were 
then  about  the  biggest  in  our  cavalry  of  the  Line,  and  as 
they  went  thundering  forward  with  loud  shouts  their 
opponents  may  well  have  thought  their  last  hour  had 
come.  These  Dragoons  and  Fane's  Horse  were  in  front 
with  Probyn's  regiment  in  second  line.  What  an  in- 
spiriting sight  it  was  !  My  heart  beat  quicker  as  I  watched 
it.  Had  the  Chairman  of  the  Peace  Society  been  there  I  am 
sure  he  would  have  shouted  in  exultation  as  he  saw  those 

1  That  meant  eight  lee  or  two  and  three-quarter  miles  from  Tung- 
chow  by  the  great  paved  road  that  runs  between  it  and  Pekin. 

68 


A    CAVALRY    CHARGE 

lines  of  gallant  horsemen  charge  at  full  speed  amongst 
the  enemy's  hordes.  The  Tartar  cavalry  had,  however, 
cunningly  halted  behind  a  wide  ditch  to  receive  the 
charge,  and  dehvered  a  volley  when  our  horsemen  reached 
it.  At  that  period  our  irregular  cavalry  always  rode  with 
short,  standing  martingales,  which  prevented  their  horses 
from  jumping  freely.  Many  accordingly  went  head  over 
heels  into  that  ditch,  their  riders  being  unable  to  pull  them 
up  in  time.  Not  so,  however,  the  King's  Dragoon  Guards, 
whose  horses  having  free  heads,  jumped  or  scrambled 
over  safely.  They  were  soon  weU  in  amongst  the  Tartars, 
riding  over  men  and  ponies,  and  knocking  both  down 
together  like  so  many  ninepins.  But  Probyn  and  Fane's 
sharp-sworded  Sikhs,  Pathans  and  Punjaubee  Mussulmans 
soon  followed  and  showed  splendidly,  fighting  side  by  side 
with  the  big  sturdy  British  Dragoon  Guardsmen.  In  a 
few  minutes  riderless  Tartar  ponies  were  to  be  seen  gal- 
loping in  all  directions,  and  the  track  of  our  charge  was 
strewn  with  the  enemy.  Upon  no  subsequent  occasion 
did  they  ever  allow  our  cavalry  to  get  anywhere  near  them. 
We  had  taught  them  a  lesson,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that 
hundreds  of  them  carried  back  into  their  homes  in  Man- 
churia and  Mongolia  marvellous  tales  of  the  big  Britishers 
and  the  reckless  swordsmen  from  the  land  of  the  five  rivers, 
who,  mounted  on  great  horses,  had  charged  through  their 
ranks  that  day. 

Our  guns  opened  upon  their  retreating  masses,  the  Arm- 
strong shells  making  havoc  in  their  ranks.  We  took  a 
large  number  of  guns  during  the  day,  and  also  burnt  a 
great  many  Tartar  camps  that  were  well  laid  out,  the  tents 
in  them  being  excellent.  The  country  people  from  far 
and  near  helped  at  this  work,  and  crowds  were  soon  to  be 

69 


THE   STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

seen  staggering  to  their  homes  as  fast  as  they  could  under 
the  weight  of  the  loot  they  had  collected.  Our  pursuit 
lasted  to  within  six  miles  of  Pekin,  and  when  we  halted 
both  horses  and  men  were  very  hungry  and  tired  after 
their  day's  work.  I  had  great  pity  for  our  horses,  but 
none  for  myself  nor  for  my  comrades,  for  the  day's  fighting 
had  been  well  worth  any  year  of  humdrum  existence.  If 
there  was  any  poor-spirited  creature  amongst  us,  that 
day  must  have  made  him  a  better  soldier,  and  therefore 
a  better  man. 

We  encamped  for  the  night,  September  21,  close  by 
where  the  Pekin  road  crosses  the  canal  by  the  Pa-H-cheaou 
Bridge.  Our  thirsty  men  and  horses  drank  deeply  of  that 
canal  water.  Hundreds  of  very  large  white  ducks  were 
swimming  tamely  on  its  surface  when  we  arrived.  Very 
few  were  there  next  morning,  but  the  ground  near  aU  our 
tents  was  suspiciously  white  with  feathers. 

Within  the  space  of  three  days  we  had  won  two  important 
actions,  and  the  Chinese  ministers  in  Pekin  must  now 
have  fully  believed  their  inability  to  oppose  us  in  the  field. 
To  have  marched  direct  upon  the  capital  on  September  22 
would  have  been  a  daring  move,  as  one  of  our  divisions 
had  been  left  behind  at  Tien-tsin.  But  had  they  refused 
to  open  its  gates,  as  our  siege  guns  had  not  yet  arrived 
we  could  not  have  breached  its  walls,  and  they  were  too 
high  to  be  escaladed.  It  is  not  wise  in  dealing  with  the 
Chinese  to  threaten  until  you  are  in  a  position  to  enforce 
your  threat  should  it  be  disregarded.  Under  the  circum- 
stances we  then  found  ourselves  in,  it  was  wiser  to  wait 
for  our  siege  train  at  Pa-li-cheaou  than  to  do  so  imme- 
diately under  the  walls  of  Pekin.  The  non-combatant 
looker-on  is  apt  to  forget  the  lessons  which  military  histor}' 

70 


OUR    DIPLOMATISTS'    ASSURANCES 

teaches  the  professional  soldier  on  all  such  points.  The 
mistake  we  soldiers  had  already  made  was  in  accepting 
the  pleasant  assurances  of  our  diplomatist  colleagues  that 
peace  was  certain,  and  that  we  should  have  no  further 
fighting.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  over-confidence  in 
peace  on  the  part  of  our  ambassador  we  should  have 
reached  the  Pa-li-cheaou  Bridge  with  all  our  army  and 
our  siege  train  also,  ready  for  an  immediate  advance  and 
for  the  capture  of  Pekin. 


71 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
Surrender  of  Pekin 

THE  result  of  our  battle  at  the  Pa-li-cheaou  on  Sep- 
tember 21  had  to  some  extent  opened  the  eyes  of 
the  mandarins  to  the  folly  of  all  further  resistance.  Whilst 
encamped  on  this  Yung-Leang  canal,  near  the  bridge,  many 
letters  passed  between  Prince  Kung  and  the  allied  am- 
bassadors. The  prince,  who  was  the  emperor's  brother, 
wrote  to  announce  that  he  had  been  appointed  Imperial 
commissioner,  with  fuU  powers  to  treat  with  us  vice  the 
Prince  of  E.,  who  had  failed  to  arrange  a  peace.  He 
made  proposals  for  a  conference,  which  Lord  Elgin  re- 
jected, saying  he  would  consider  no  terms  until  the  prisoners 
they  had  captured  against  the  laws  of  all  civilized  nations 
and  under  the  most  treacherous  circumstances  had  been 
sent  back  to  us.  It  was  also  stated  that  until  then,  we 
should  continue  military  operations. 

I  cannot  refer  to  this  correspondence  without  according 
my  admiration  of  Mr.  Parkes'  behaviour  throughout  it. 
Whilst  a  cruelly  treated  prisoner  he  bore  himself  like  an 
English  gentleman.  I  can  say  nothing  higher  in  his  favour. 
He  positively  refused  to  try  to  influence  Lord  Elgin  in 
any  way  whatever,  even  when  tortured  and  threatened 
with  death.  He  never  endeavoured  to  escape  the  gross 
indignities  and  misery  he  suffered  by  any  effort  to  induce 
our  ambassador  to  make  the  smallest  diminution  in  our 

72 


SIR    HARRY    PARKES 

demands  for  redress,  or  to  alter  in  any  fashion  the  terms 
upon  which  we  were  willing  to  make  peace.  No  more 
loyal  spirit  ever  sustained  a  stout  heart  under  more  appal- 
ling and  trying  circumstances.  His  was  indeed  a  rare 
instance  of  absolute  devotion  to  pubhc  duty. 

For  Sir  Hope  Grant  to  have  marched  upon  Pekin  imme- 
diately after  his  victory  at  Pa-li-cheaou,  before  our  heavy 
guns  and  the  second  division  had  arrived,  would  have 
been  a  foolish  and  dangerous  proceeding.  Assured  by 
those  who  were  alone  responsible  for  the  diplomacy  of  the 
war  that  peace  was  practically  assured,  he  had  pushed  on 
to  Pekin  with  a  portion  only  of  his  army.  He  now  dis- 
covered that  our  ambassador  had  been  tricked  and  over- 
reached by  the  wiles  and  assurances  of  an  unscrupulous 
enemy.  Our  vexatious  halt  at  Pa-H-cheaou  was  the  result. 
To  us  soldiers  it  was  very  trying  and  painful  indeed  to  feel 
that  we  should  now  probably  have  to  fight  another  battle 
whilst  a  number  of  our  comrades  were  in  the  hands  of  a 
faithless,  cruel  enemy.  It  might  lead  to  their  immediate 
murder.  All  ranks  were  well  aware  that  this  unpleasant 
prospect  was  the  outcome  of  an  over-sanguine  diplomacy. 
But  Sir  Hope  Grant  was  not  a  man  to  be  led  for  a  second 
time  into  so  undignified  a  position.  He  knew  the  winter 
was  near  at  hand,  and  that  peace  was  consequently  an 
urgent  need,  but  it  must  be  a  reaUty,  and  not  a  mere 
written  document. 

On  September  23  another  letter  from  Prince  Kung  press- 
ing for  peace  was  received  by  Lord  Elgin.  The  answer 
sent  to  it  was,  that  if  within  three  days  from  date  of  writing 
aU  the  prisoners  were  returned,  and  the  demands  already 
made  were  accepted,  our  army  would  advance  no  further, 
but  that  unless  these  terms  were  accepted  we  should  take 

73 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Pekin,  an  event  that  would  probably  lead  to  the  downfall 
of  the  Manchoo  Dynasty.  It  was  further  intimated  that 
those  terms  were  final. 

In  another  letter  from  the  prince,  Mr.  Parkes  had  been 
allowed  to  enclose  a  note  written  in  Chinese,  asking  for 
clothes  for  himself  and  Mr.  Loch,  and  saying  that  both 
had  been  well  treated.  On  the  margin,  traced  in  Persian 
characters,  was  an  intimation  that  his  letter  had  been 
written  "  By  Order."  When  the  clothes  asked  for  reached 
the  prisoners,  they  discovered,  written  by  us  in  the  same 
characters,  the  information  that  our  guns  would  open 
upon  the  city  in  three  days. 

In  some  respects  the  game  was  in  our  hands,  but  time 
pressed  seriously,  as  we  could  only  count  upon  another 
month  for  military  operations.  We  also  felt  the  necessity 
of  avoiding  all  extreme  measures  that  might  cause  the 
overthrow  of  the  Imperial  dynasty,  or  even  very  seriously 
weaken  the  authority  of  the  existing  Government.  The 
great,  the  essential  aim  of  our  poUcy  was  to  make  all  China 
reahze  that  we  were  immeasurably  the  stronger,  the  more 
powerful  nation.  They  might  style  us  barbarians  if  it 
pleased  their  vanity  to  do  so,  but  we  felt  that  for  all  classes 
to  recognize  fully  our  superior  mihtary  strength  would 
be  the  surest  guarantee  of  peace  in  the  future. 

Prince  Kung's  answer  to  Lord  Elgin's  ultimatum  was 
a  proof  that  he  and  his  councillors  were  in  a  dazed  con- 
dition of  mind.  Unless  they  accepted  our  terms  they 
knew  that  Pekin  must  fall,  and  with  it  perhaps  the  whole 
fabric  of  Tartar  rule  also.  But  they  feared  to  face  the 
sole  alternative  that  could  avert  this  national  collapse. 
The  only  order  they  had  apparently  received  from  their 
far-away  Emperor  was,  "  Keep  the  barbarians  at  a  distance." 

74 


THE  PAVED  ROAD  TO  PEKIN 

Their  most  astute  Ministers  even  had  failed  in  their 
diplomacy  ;  we  were  no  longer  to  be  taken  in  by  specious 
promises,  and  their  last  hope  of  being  able  to  prolong 
negotiations  until  the  fierce  winter  had  set  in  was  fading 
away.  But  even  Prince  Kung,  although  he  was  the  Em- 
peror's brother,  shrank  from  asking  for  terms.  He,  as 
well  as  humbler  men  around  him,  seemed  paralyzed  and 
unable  to  come  to  any  decision. 

No  answer  to  our  ultimatum  having  reached  us  within 
the  limit  Lord  Elgin  had  laid  down,  and  our  siege  guns 
having  arrived,  we  broke  up  our  camp  at  Pa-li-cheaou  on 
October  3,  and  crossing  the  canal  by  a  bridge  of  boats 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  took  up  a  position  astride  the 
paved  road  to  Pekin.  This  road  had  evidently  been  in 
former  times  a  splendid  highway.  It  was  made  of  great 
blocks  of  stone  some  three  or  four  feet  long,  and  about 
fifteen  inches  wide,  laid  closely  together.  But  evidently 
no  care  had  been  taken  of  it  for  very  many  years,  and  the 
heavy  rains  and  hard  frosts  of  winter  had  so  disturbed 
these  blocks  that  to  take  carts  and  guns  over  it  would 
have  destroyed  their  wheels.  Like  everything  remark- 
able in  the  once  well-named  "Flowery  Land,"  this  road, 
as  it  then  was,  bespoke  a  past  of  royal  greatness,  of  mag- 
nificent public  works,  and  a  present  of  degrading  decay 
both  in  art  and  in  the  wisdom  and  zeal  of  all  in 
authority. 

There  we  were  joined  by  our  Second  Division,  which 
had  made  double  marches  to  reach  us.  We  were  delayed 
a  day  waiting  for  a  large  French  convoy,  which  did  not 
arrive  until  the  4th,  so  our  movement  upon  Pekin  was 
postponed  until  October  5.  During  our  recent  halt,  letters 
had  arrived  daily  from  Prince  Kung,  sometimes  two  in 

75 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

a  day,  entreating  us  not  to  advance.  They  all  indicated 
both  cunning  and  fright.  He  knew  he  could  not  stop  us, 
but  was  afraid  to  make  peace  upon  our  terms. 

Upon  October  5  the  allied  armies  advanced  and  bivouacked 
for  the  night  in  a  good  position  north-east  of  Pekin.  The 
nights  were  already  cold,  but  the  abundance  of  cut  millet 
enabled  us  to  keep  warm.  The  country  became  much 
closer  as  we  approached  the  capital ;  there  were  gardens 
all  round,  and  numerous  groves  of  pine — usually  sur- 
rounding important  tombs — blocked  the  view  in  its  im- 
mediate vicinity.  The  roads,  unmetalled  everywhere, 
were  mostly  so  hollowed  by  long  use  that  a  mounted  man 
could  see  nothing  of  the  surrounding  country  from  them. 
From  some  high  brick-kilns  we  made  out  the  enormous 
line  of  old  earthen  ramparts  which  enclosed  a  great  rec- 
tangular space  to  the  north  of  Pekin  nearly  as  large  as 
half  the  Tartar  city.  The  country  people  assured  us  that 
within  that  space  Sang-ko-lin-sin  and  his  army  were  en- 
camped, and  they  said  the  Emperor  was  still  in  the  Yuen- 
ming-Yuen  Palace,  about  five  miles  west  of  our  bivouac. 

October  6  saw  us  again  on  the  march,  and  in  the  evening 
we  bivouacked  inside  the  ramparts  from  which  Sang-ko- 
lin-sin  and  his  army  had  just  retreated.  But  in  the  close 
country  we  had  just  passed  through,  not  only  the  French 
but  our  own  cavalry  also  had  "  lost  touch  "  with  us.  The 
latter  had  been  ordered  to  make  a  wide  sweep  to  our  right 
and  take  up  a  position  on  the  main  road  running  from 
Pekin  northwards  to  Jeho,  by  which  we  expected  the 
enemy  to  retreat.  During  the  day  Sir  Hope  Grant  had 
sent  to  tell  General  Montauban  that  he  understood  Sang- 
ko-lin-sin  had  fallen  back  upon  Yuen-ming-Yuen,  and 
that  consequently  he  would  push  forward  for  that  place. 

76 


YUEN-MING-YUEN   PALACE 

It    was    thought    advisable,  however,  to    wait  until    our 
cavalry  had  rejoined  us  before  we  did  so. 

I  was  ordered  to  take  out  a  squadron  of  cavalry  at  day- 
break the  next  morning — October  7 — and  get  into  com- 
munication with  our  cavalry  brigade  and  with  the  French. 
Before  I  started  we  fired  a  royal  salute  from  the  top  of 
the  great  rampart  near  us,  to  indicate  to  the  missing  French 
where  our  army  was. 

By  making  very  wide  hunting  "  casts "  I  found  the 
track  of  our  cavalry  brigade  and  the  French  army.  Fol- 
lowing it  up  some  miles,  I  came  upon  one  of  our  native 
cavalry  pickets,  and  learnt  from  the  officer  in  command 
of  it  that  the  French  had  taken  possession  of  Yuen-ming- 
Yuen  Palace.  A  quick  gallop  soon  took  me  back  to  our 
headquarters. 

I  conducted  Sir  Hope  Grant  and  Lord  Elgin  to  the  palace 
in  the  course  of  the  day.  What  a  sight  it  presented ! 
General  Montauban  met  Sir  Hope  at  the  door  and  begged 
him  not  to  allow  his  staff  to  enter,  and  he  at  once  assenting 
told  us  to  stay  outside.  I  was  amused  at  this,  because  at 
that  very  moment  there  was  a  string  of  French  soldiers 
going  in  empty-handed  and  another  coming  out  laden 
with  loot  of  all  sorts  and  kinds.  Many  were  dressed  in 
the  richly  embroidered  gowns  of  women,  and  almost  all 
wore  fine  Chinese  hats  instead  of  the  French  kepi.  Sir 
Hope  and  Lord  Elgin  went  in.  Whilst  I  remained  out- 
side, the  French  "  assembly  "  was  beaten  on  their  drums 
in  one  of  the  regimental  camps  pitched  at  the  gate.  But 
it  was  sounded  in  vain  ;  very  few  men,  not  ten  per  com- 
pany, turned  out ;  the  others  were  doubtless  looting  inside 
the  palace.  For  a  considerable  time  I  walked  up  and 
down  with   the   French  general.   Baron   Janin.     He  was 

77 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

an  interesting  man,  and  I  was  much  amused  to  see  how 
large  a  number  of  the  looters  presented  him  with  a  gift 
of  something  curious  as  they  saluted  him  in  passing  out 
of  the  palace  gates.  Many  of  the  looters  had  well-filled 
sacks  on  their  backs.  One  of  these,  an  Artilleryman, 
having  made  his  offering  to  the  general,  turned  towards 
me  and  said,  as  he  handed  to  me  what  at  first  sight  seemed 
to  be  a  tiny  framed  picture,  "  Mon  camarade,  void  un 
petit  cadeau  pour  vous.'^  I  thanked  him  and  put  it  into 
my  pocket.  It  was  an  extremely  good  French  enamel 
of  a  man  in  a  flowing  wig,  evidently  one  of  the  many  fine 
presents  sent  by  Louis  XIV  to  the  Emperor  of  China  with 
the  imposing  embassy  he  despatched  to  the  Chinese  court. 
For  years  it  remained  in  its  Uttle  Chinese  frame  standing 
on  my  writing-table.  About  ten  years  afterwards,  when 
I  had  married,  my  wife  looking  at  it  said  she  believed  it 
was  by  Petitot,  and  sent  it  to  Paris  to  have  it  examined. 
She  was  right.  It  was  a  miniature  of  BoUeau  done  by 
that  artist  in  his  best  style.  It  is  the  only  piece  of  loot 
I  possess,  but  it  is  a  valuable  one. 

I  make  no  attempt  to  describe  either  the  rich  treasures 
of  that  palace  or  the  highly  decorated  and,  in  many  re- 
spects, very  fine  buildings  which  contained  them.  For 
some  days  afterwards  the  looting  was  continued,  and  a 
large  number  of  our  officers  secured  a  good  deal,  but  neither 
the  non-commissioned  officers  nor  the  privates — being 
in  camp  several  miles  away — had  the  chance  of  obtaining 
anything.  This  Sir  Hope  Grant  thought  unfair,  so  he 
issued  a  general  order  directing  all  our  officers  who  had 
obtained  any  loot  to  send  it  in  forthwith  to  prize  agents, 
whom  he  named,  in  order  that  it  might  be  sold  by  pubhc 
auction,  and    the    sum  thus    obtained    distributed    forth- 

78 


VALUE    OF    PAPER    TREATIES 

with  amongst  the  army  present  before  Pekin.  This  was 
done,  and  the  sale  produced  so  large  a  sum  that  each 
private  soldier  received  nearly  £4  sterhng  as  his  share.  The 
Commander-in-Chief  and  our  two  generals  of  division, 
Sir  John  Michel  and  Sir  Robert  Napier,  renounced  all 
claims  for  any  share.  This  was  most  generous  of  them, 
especially  on  Sir  Hope  Grant's  part,  as  his  share  would 
have  been  considerable. 

We  secured  a  large  number  of  most  interesting  official 
papers  in  the  palace,  many  of  which  threw  much  hght 
upon  the  events  of  the  campaign.  One  was  Sang-ko-Un- 
sin's  memorial  addressed  to  the  Emperor  two  days  after 
we  had  taken  the  Taku  forts.  In  it  he  advised  His 
Majesty  to  go  on  a  hunting  tour  in  a  fashion  that  evidently 
bred  suspicion  of  his  motives  in  the  minds  of  the  civil 
Ministers  at  court.  They  all  condemned  the  proposal. 
He  had  made  a  serious  mistake  in  not  strengthening  Peh- 
Tang  and  in  leaving  open  the  back-door  of  the  Taku 
defences.  His  paper  upon  the  general  defence  of  the 
coast-line  and  upon  the  chances  of  our  attacking  him  was 
clever.  His  opinion  that  our  overthrow  was  certain  was 
formed  in  ignorance  of  the  immense  advantage  that  steam 
gunboats  and  the  superiority  of  rifled  guns  and  muskets 
and  of  a  good  military  system  gave  us  over  the  iU-armed 
hordes  he  commanded.  Amongst  other  papers  found  in 
the  Imperial  Palace  was  Lord  Elgin's  treaty  of  1858.  I 
wish  I  had  kept  it,  for  framed  upon  my  waUs  it  would 
have  always  been  a  warning  against  implicit  trust  in  paper 
treaties  with  barbarous  States  until  their  rulers  had  been 
made  to  fully  realize  that  our  Sovereign  could  and  would, 
if  necessary,  'compel  adherence  to  their  stipulations  by 
force  of  arms. 

79 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

A  letter  of  October  6  from  Prince  Kung,  signed  by  Mr. 
Parkes,  reached  our  headquarters  the  day  after,  in  which 
His  Highness  promised  the  return  of  the  prisoners  on 
October  8,  In  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Wade  met  the  com- 
missioner Hang-Ki  immediately  outside  the  waUs  of  Pekin, 
the  latter  having  been  let  down  over  the  wall  in  a  basket. 
He  accounted  for  this  by  saying  the  gates  were  blocked 
up.  Kung,  he  said,  had  left  the  city  with  the  army  the 
day  before,  taking  most  of  the  prisoners  with  him,  and 
swearing  that  those  still  in  Pekin  would  be  surrendered 
the  next  day.  In  accordance  with  this  promise,  Messrs. 
Loch,  Parkes,  a  French  gentleman,  some  French  soldiers 
and  some  sowars,  reached  our  Headquarters.  On  the 
I2th  and  14th  of  that  month  one  more  French  soldier 
and  ten  more  of  our  sowars  were  surrendered,  in  all 
nineteen  souls  of  the  thirty-nine  they  had  treacherously 
captured  against  the  laws  of  all  civilized  nations.  The 
gloomiest  page  of  history  does  not  disclose  anything  more 
horrible  than  the  story  told  by  one  and  aU  of  those  who 
returned.  The  refinement  of  the  torture  and  the  senseless 
cruelty  inflicted  upon  them  made  one  doubt  whether  the 
Chinese  were  human. 

I  pass  by  the  heartrending  stories  told  to  us^  by  the 
unfortunate  sowars  who  survived  the  tortures  inflicted 
upon  them.  They  spoke  in  glowing  terms  of  how  Private 
Phipps  of  the  King's  Dragoon  Guards  had  behaved  until 
a  lingering  death  ended  his  misery.  He  spoke  a  little 
Hindostanee,  and  could  therefore  make  himself  understood 
by  them.  They  said  he  never  lost  heart,  and  always  strove 
to  cheer  up  those  who  bemoaned  their  cruel  fate.  To 
his  last  conscious  moments  he  encouraged  them  with 
words  of  hope  and  comfort.     AU  honour  be  to  the  memory 

80 


PRIVATE    PHIPPS 

of  this  brave,  stout  heart,  for  it  is  only  the  highest  order 
of  courage,  mental  and  bodily,  that  can  sustain  men 
through  the  tortures  inflicted  upon  this  noble  British 
private  soldier. 

A  paper  in  Chinese,  stating  the  terms  upon  which  alone 
we  would  spare  Pekin,  was  sent  to  the  authorities  in  the 
city.  A  sine  qua  non  was  the  surrender  of  the  north- 
eastern, or  in  Chinese  nomenclature,  the  An-ting  Gate, 
for  unless  it  was  in  our  hands  Lord  Elgin's  safety  could 
not  be  guaranteed  when  he  entered  Pekin  to  formally 
sign  the  proposed  treaty.  We  gave  the  mandarin  who 
was  commanding  in  the  city  until  noon  of  October  13  to 
comply  with  this  demand.  It  was  calculated  that  we 
could  not  have  the  breaching  battery  we  were  then  con- 
structing, ready  to  open  fire  before  that  hour. 

This  battery  for  our  four  heavy  guns  was  being  pre- 
pared behind  the  high  enclosure  round  the  "  Temple  of 
the  Earth,"  and  was  about  200  yards  from  the  city  wall, 
and  some  600  yards  east  of  the  An-ting  Gate. 

We  warned  the  Pekin  citizens  by  proclamation  of  what 
we  meant  to  do  if  our  demands  were  not  complied  with. 
I  went  to  the  battery  some  time  before  the  sun  had  reached 
the  meridian  on  the  day  we  had  named  for  the  surrender, 
and  leaving  my  horse  under  cover  I  entered  the  battery 
and  found  everything  ready  for  opening  fire.  I  took  my 
place  by  the  right-hand  gun,  where  the  captain  of  artillery 
in  command  stood,  like  myself,  watch  in  hand,  awaiting 
what  was  to  be  a  noon  of  dire  import  not  only  to  the 
inhabitants,  but  also  to  the  fortunes  of  the  Chinese  reigning 
family. 

Up  to  within  ten  minutes  of  the  time  named,  no  sign 
of  surrender  was  made  by  the  enemy.     Our  embrasures 

VOL.  II.  81  Q 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

were  then  unmasked,  the  guns  were  dehberately  sponged, 
loaded,  run  out,  and  then  laid  upon  the  wall  where  we 
meant  to  batter  it.  I  held  my  breath  ;  I  was  not  happy, 
feeUng  we  were  playing  at  a  "  game  of  brag,"  for  I  knew 
too  well  that  with  the  number  of  rounds  we  had  with  us 
no  effective  breach  could  be  hoped  for.  But  the  enemy 
did  not  know  that,  when  from  the  city  walls  they  saw  the 
muzzles  of  those  dreaded  guns  run  forward  through  the 
embrasures  into  which  the  citizens  could  look  from  their 
elevated  position. 

But  a  few  moments  before  noon  was  reached,  the  An-ting 
Gate  swung  open,  and  Pekin  "  surrendered  at  discretion." 
I  drew  a  long  breath  of  intense  satisfaction  at  the  result. 
We  at  once  took  possession  of  this  entrance  to  the  city, 
which  was  now  at  our  mercy,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
Union  Jack  floated  from  the  far-famed  walls  of  the 
"  Celestial  Capital,"  the  pride  of  so  many  millions  of 
Chinamen  who  had  never  even  seen  them,  and  which  until 
then  had  been  regarded  as  impregnable  by  the  whole 
nation.  We  held  this  An-ting  Gate  until  peace  had  been 
signed  and  the  allied  armies  had  started  upon  their  return 
march  for  Tien-tsin. 

A  few  days  afterwards,  when  reconnoitring  to  the 
west  of  the  city,  I  met  a  Tartar  escort  with  five  carts,  each 
carrying  a  rough  coffin  that  contained  the  remains  of  a 
British  prisoner  who  had  been  tortured  to  death  by  our 
inhuman  enemy.  Fastened  to  each  coffin  was  a  piece  of 
paper  with  a  Chinese  representation  of  the  name  of  the 
victim  it  contained.  We  buried  the  remains  of  our  poor 
murdered  countrymen  with  all  miUtary  honours  in  the 
Russian  cemetery  outside  the  city. 

The  day  after  this  sad  ceremony,  Lord  Elgin  made  a 

82 


OUR   TERMS    OF   PEACE 

fresh  offer  of  peace  to  Prince  Kung,  adding  to  our  former 
demands  the  payment  within  a  week  of  £100,000  for  dis- 
tribution amongst  the  families  of  those  whom  he  had 
allowed  to  be  murdered.^  We  informed  him  at  the  same 
time  that  to  mark  our  horror  of  this  foul  crime  we  in- 
tended utterly  to  destroy  everything  that  remained  of 
Yuen-ming-Yuen  Palace,  within  whose  precincts  several 
of  the  British  captives  had  been  subjected  to  the  grossest 
indignities.  We  also  intimated  our  intention  of  retaining 
a  garrison  in  Tien-tsin  for  the  coming  winter,  and  wound 
up  by  saying  that  it  was  only  by  the  acceptance  of  these 
terms  the  doom  hanging  over  the  Manchoo  Dynasty  could 
be  averted. 

The  fact  that  the  Taiping  army  was  said  to  be  already 
within  a  hundred  miles  of  Pekin,  may  have  been  an  extra 
reason  why  the  Emperor  should  close  with  our  terms  lest 
we  should  make  common  cause  with  the  rebels.  The 
day  following  the  despatch  of  these  terms  to  Prince  Kung, 
we  burnt  down  the  beautiful  palace  of  Yuen-ming-Yuen, 
in  which  Lord  Macartney,  as  the  ambassador  of  England, 
and  afterwards  a  French  ambassador  from  Louis  XIV 
had  been  received  in  great  state  by  former  emperors.  A 
gentle  wind  carried  to  Pekin  dense  clouds  of  smoke  from 
this  great  conflagration,  and  covered  its  streets  with  a 
shower  of  burnt  embers,  which  must  have  been  to  all  classes 
silent  evidences  of  our  work  of  retribution.  I  am  sure 
it  was  taken  as  an  intimation  of  what  might  befall  the 
city  and  all  its  palaces  unless  our  terms  of  peace  were  at 
once  accepted.  To  have  asked  for  a  great  sum  as  an  in- 
demnity would  have  only  been   to  impose  that  amount 

^  This  amount  was   made  over  to  our  Commissary  General   on 
October  22. 

83 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

of  taxation  upon  the  people,  but  the  burning  of  this  palace 
was  a  well-placed  blow  to  Tartar  pride  and  to  the  Emperor's 
absurd  notions  of  his  supremacy  over  all  nations.  Our 
reasons  for  doing  this  were  duly  announced  in  a  proclama- 
tion written  in  Chinese,  and  posted  in  all  the  places  to 
which  we  had  access. 

In  carrying  out  my  reconnoitring  duties  I  was  brought 
into  daily  contact  with  the  village  people  at  long  distances 
from  our  camp  near  Pekin.  When  returning  from  these 
expeditions  I  passed  several  times  through  the  large  vil- 
lage close  to  the  burnt  palace  of  Yuen-ming-Yuen.  Upon 
one  occasion  my  ear  caught  the  sound  of  heavy  blows 
being  struck  and  of  groans  as  from  a  man  in  pain.  I  turned 
my  horse  into  the  yard  whence  the  sound  came,  and  there 
I  found  one  man  beating  another  on  the  head  with  an 
iron  hammer.  I  saved  the  victim  from  immediate  death 
but  do  not  know  if  his  assailant  returned  to  complete  the 
murder  afterwards.  From  what  I  saw  of  the  place  I  be- 
lieve the  villagers  far  and  near  obtained  more  loot  from 
that  palace  than  did  the  two  allied  armies. 

In  one  of  my  many  reconnoitring  expeditions  near 
Pekin  I  became  separated  from  my  party,  which  was  a 
troop  of  Probyn's  Horse.  I  had  two  of  them  riding  behind 
me  as  orderlies,  when  I  suddenly  came  across  a  hollow 
road  so  unusually  deep  that  even  mounted  men  upon  it 
did  not  show  over  its  unfenced  sides.  As  I  came  to  the 
top  of  the  bank  overlooking  the  road  beneath,  to  my 
astonishment  I  saw  an  extremely  tidy-looking  and  well- 
turned-out  troop  of  Tartar  cavalry  moving  along  it  at 
a  walk  towards  Pekin.  They  were  immediately  below 
me,  and  as  I  thus  came  upon  them  they  were  evidently 
as  much  astonished  as  I  was.     Instinctively  I  drew  my 

84 


A  TROOP  OF  TARTAR  CAVALRY 

revolver  from  its  case,  and  my  two  Sikh  orderlies  cocked 
their  carbines,  and  in  another  second  would  have  let  drive 
into  these  smart-looking  Mongol  horsemen.  I  said,"  Don't 
fire,"  and  lowered  my  own  pistol.  I  could  easily  have 
accounted  for  at  least  three  of  them,  and  my  two  orderlies 
for  another  brace,  but  I  had  not  the  heart  to  fire  in  cold 
blood  upon  men  armed  only  with  bows  and  arrows  and 
trumpery  swords  who  had  not  attacked  me.  They  rode 
on  at  a  quickened  pace,  evidently  glad  to  get  beyond  the 
range  of  the  barbarian's  bullet. 

It  was  arranged  that  the  treaty  of  peace  was  to  be  signed 
in  the  Hall  of  Audience  within  Pekin  in  the  afternoon  of 
October  24.  I  was  told  to  make  the  closest  inspection  of 
the  place  beforehand,  for  there  were  many  sinister  rumours 
afloat  that  the  Chinese  meant  to  blow  up  our  ambassador. 
I  did  so,  but  could  find  nothing  suspicious,  and  felt  that 
it  would  be  difficult  to  blow  up  Lord  Elgin  without  killing 
Prince  Kung  also.  However,  one  of  our  Divisions  was 
carefully  distributed  along  the  route  to  be  taken  through 
the  city,  and  a  strong  guard  surrounded  our  ambassador. 

The  presence  of  a  large  force  of  troops  marching  through 
the  streets  of  Pekin  with  bands  playing  and  colours  flying 
must  have  impressed  all  Chinamen  with  the  folly  of  their 
rulers  in  making  war  upon  us.  I  feel  sure  it  had  more 
effect  with  the  people  than  any  number  of  paper  treaties 
could  have  had.  It  was  an  open  and  undeniable  assertion 
on  our  part,  and  of  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor, 
of  our  superior  strength  and  of  our  recent  victories.  It 
made  every  member  of  the  Chinese  official  hierarchy  reaHze 
that  distance  could  not  save  the  culprit  from  our  ven- 
geance. 

In  case  of  any  treachery  being  attempted  during  the 

85 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

signing  of  the  treaty  in  Pekin,  it  was  arranged  that  three 
guns  should  be  fired  at  the  An-ting  Gate,  where  a  strong 
reserve  of  troops  was  posted.  Upon  hearing  that  signal, 
our  first  Division  was  at  once  to  march  into  the  city. 

Prince  Kung  was  a  nice-looking,  yellow-faced  Tartar, 
of  middle  height  and  good  features.  He  was,  I  should 
say,  of  about  eight  or  nine  and  twenty.  He  looked  a 
gentleman  amidst  the  crowd  of  bilious,  bloated,  smaU- 
pox-marked  faces  of  the  mandarins  around  him.  It 
would  indeed  have  been  difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  less 
pleasing  lot  of  mortals  than  they  were. 

It  was  hoped  that  Mr.  Bruce,  who  was  to  take  up  his 
residence  at  Pekin  as  our  representative  when  his  brother, 
Lord  Elgin,  left  China,  would  arrive  before  Prince  Kung 
left  Pekin.  The  army  was  to  be  detained  there  until 
November  8,  after  which  date  we  could  no  longer  depend 
upon  reaching  the  Taku  forts  before  the  Pei-Ho  had  been 
closed  to  navigation. 

Winter  had  set  in  severely  before  the  army  left  Pekin 
and  its  neighbourhood  on  November  7  and  8.  We  had 
already  had  several  days  of  heavy  rain  and  hard  frost, 
from  which  our  Indian  followers  began  to  suffer.  The 
cold  north  winds  of  winter  try  the  Eastern  constitution 
in  that  region,  so  all  were  glad  to  say  "  good-bye  "  to  Pekin 
and  its  neighbourhood.  I  never  served  with  a  healthier, 
better-cared-for  or  more  skilfully  led  army  in  the  field. 
The  men  looked  well  and  strong  as  they  marched  south. 

Our  embassy  was  established  for  the  winter  at  Tien- 
tsin, where  we  left  a  garrison  of  two  and  a  half  British 
battalions — the  other  half  of  the  third  battalion  being 
quartered  in  the  Taku  forts — Fane's  regiment  of  cavalry, 
a  battery  of  field  artillery,   and  a  battalion  of  military 

86 


END    OF    WAR    WITH    CHINA 

train.  Brigadier-General  Staveley  was  left  in  command. 
Those  troops  were  provided  with  an  ample  supply  of  warm 
clothing  and  of  everything  they  could  possibly  require. 

Before  I  left  Tien-tsin  all  its  shops  were  open  as  usual, 
and  driving  a  lively  trade.  The  confectioners  soon  earned 
a  well-deserved  celebrity  for  the  excellence  of  their  cakes, 
and  the  shopkeepers  generally  were  extremely  civil. 

General  Sir  Hope  Grant  and  the  Headquarter  Staff  left 
that  city  the  end  of  November,  and  having  embarked  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Pei-Ho,  we  steamed  away  for  Shanghai. 
So  ended  the  China  War  of  i860.  I  sincerely  hope  that 
every  war  we  shall  have  forced  upon  us  may  be  as  ably 
planned  and  as  well  carried  out  as  this  was  by  my  old  and 
weU-loved  chief,  Sir  Hope  Grant.  He  was  the  best  of 
men  and  the  bravest  of  soldiers  :  I  can  think  of  no  higher 
praise  that  man  can  earn. 


87 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

A    Visit   to  Japan,    1 860-1 

WHEN  the  war  came  to  an  end,  twelve  of  the  officers 
belonging  to  the  Headquarter  Staff,  including 
our  Commander-in-Chief,  Sir  Hope  Grant,  hired  a  P.  and  O. 
steamer  in  which  we  made  a  trip  to  Japan,  then  a  very  little 
known  country.  I  read  Lawrence  OUphant's  book  upon 
that  strange  land  during  our  voyage,  and  thought  how 
much  he  had  used  his  privilege  as  a  traveller  to  draw  the 
long  bow.  His  descriptions  of  the  Japanese  women  and 
the  manners  and  morals  of  the  people  condemned  him  in 
the  eyes  of  all  who  read  the  book  as  a  daring  story-teUer. 
But  as  we  steamed  away  from  that  land  of  flowers  and 
charming  women  and  extremely  able  men,  having  seen  a 
good  deal  of  the  country  and  its  people,  we  one  and  all 
confessed  how  much  we  had  wronged  him.  Far  from 
exaggerating  what  he  had  seen,  he  had  evidently  curbed 
his  powers  of  description  from  a  feeling  that  if  he  had  told 
the  whole  truth  about  Japan  as  he  saw  it,  his  readers  would 
not  have  believed  him. 

I  shall  not  dweU  upon  the  delightful  time  we  spent  at 
Yedda  and  the  Treaty  Ports,  nor  upon  the  glorious  outlines 
and  colouring  of  the  varied  landscapes  and  coast  views 
along  the  shores  of  the  great  inland  sea  by  which  we  returned 
from  Yokohama.    Ours  was,  I  believe,  the  first  steamer 

88 


GOVERNMENT    BY    AN    ARISTOCRACY 

ever  allowed  to  explore  the  beauties  of  that  sea,  many  of 
whose  narrow  channels  reminded  me  of  the  Bosphorus, 
that  exquisite  bit  of  our  old-world  scenery. 

I  have  often  thought  over  aU  we  saw  and  learned  when  in 
Japan  as  regarded  her  people  and  their  essentially  aristo- 
cratic form  of  government  at  that  period.  But  when  I 
review  my  impressions,  and  strive  to  compare  Japan's  then 
position  in  the  world  with  her  present  power  and  eminence 
amongst  the  nations  of  the  earth,  I  realize  what  being 
strong  on  land  and  sea  means  to  a  nation. 

In  the  winter  of  1860-61,  when  I  visited  Japan,  it  was  not 
recognized  as  a  power  to  be  counted  with  in  the  list  of 
nations  by  any  Foreign  Office.     She  was  still  a  curiosity,  a 
land  to  be  visited  by  those  in  search  of  new  interests,  or  of 
material  and  subjects  for  a  book   of  travels.     She  then 
possessed  nothing  one  could  dignify  with  the  name  of  an 
army,  and  she  owned  no  ship  for  either  peace  or  war  that 
could  sail  safely  beyond  sight  of  land.     Indeed,  there  was 
then  a  law  according  to  which  the  stems  of  all  Japanese 
ships  should  be  made  of  a  pattern  that  rendered  it  impossible 
for  them  to  undertake  long  voyages  far  from  their  own 
shores.       Now  we  find  Japan  a  considerable  naval  power 
and  to  be  reckoned  with  as  such  by  all  other  fleet-owning 
nations.     But  the  most  wonderful  change  is  to  be  found  in 
the  form  of  government.     Then  there  were  two  rulers,  the 
Tycoon  and  the  Mikado.     The  former  was  the  temporal, 
the  latter  the  spiritual  ruler,  but  I  never  found  out  the 
exact  division  of  power  and  responsibility  between  them. 
The  Tycoon,  then  a  boy,  was  to  be  seen  by  his  people,  and 
he  admitted  even  foreigners  to  his  presence  ;  but,  except  by 
his  thirteen  wives,  the  Mikado  was  seen  by  none.     He  lived 
in  seclusion  on  the  shore  of  the  inland  sea. 

89 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

I  do  not  think  the  world's  history  affords  a  more  remark- 
able instance  of  a  sweeping  revolution  than  that  by  which 
Japan  entirely  changed  her  form  of  government  in  a  very 
short  space  of  time.  The  Tycoon  was  dethroned  and  the 
Mikado  set  up  in  his  place.  This  mysterious  monarch,  who 
had  been  previously  regarded  as  a  sort  of  divine  personage, 
never  allowed  to  walk,  but  carried  from  one  room  to  another 
when  necessary,  and  never  seen,  even  by  his  Ministers, 
suddenly  blossomed  out  into  the  very  able  ruler  of  a  great 
empire.  He  discarded  the  graceful  and  becoming  costume 
of  his  forefathers,  and  ere  long  I  saw  him  described  in  a 
newspaper  as  dressed  in  the  hideous  clothes  we  daily  wear 
at  dinner,  and  with  his  empress  on  his  arm,  taking  the 
leading  part  in  opening  a  new  railway  ! 

Should  China  ever  be  wise  enough  to  follow  Japan's 
example  in  reforming  her  army  and  navy  system,  she  is 
bound  to  become  the  most  powerful  of  nations.  If  she 
wishes  for  any  proof  of  what  she  might  become  under  a 
Napoleon,  let  China  study  how  Japan  has  converted  herself 
into  a  powerful  empire  within  the  life  of  one  generation. 

Some  years  after  the  time  to  which  I  here  refer,  it  was  a 
question  whether  Colonel  Charley  Gordon  or  I  should  be 
sent  to  help  China  in  deahng  with  the  Taiping  Rebellion. 
He  was  most  wisely  selected.  As  I  have  already  mentioned, 
there  had  grown  up  between  us  many  bonds  of  union,  for 
I  admired  him  with  a  reverence  I  had  never  felt  for  any 
other  man.  When  he  returned  from  China  as  the  great 
Christian  hero  of  the  Taiping  War,  I  said  to  him  laughingly, 
"  How  differently  events  might  have  turned  out  had  I  been 
sent  on  that  mission  instead  of  you.  I  should  have  gone 
there  with  the  determination  of  wiping  out  the  rebellion 
and  of  becoming  myself  the  Emperor  of  China !  "     How 

90 


THE    GERMAN    NAVY    IN    i860 

much  loftier  and  nobler  were  the  objects  he  sought  after 
than  the  part  I  aspired  to  play  there  ?  He  had  no  earthly 
aspirations,  for  his  Master  was  not  of  this  world,  and  ambi- 
tion, as  that  vice  or  virtue  is  commonly  understood,  had  no 
resting-place  in  his  philosophy. 

As  I  write  these  Hnes,  I  reflect  on  the  small  beginnings 
from  which  some  of  the  great  armies  and  navies  of  the 
world  have  sprung.  Whilst  in  Japan  during  the  winter  of 
1860-61,  I  found  in  one  of  her  ports  the  first  ocean-going 
naval  squadron  Germany  ever  sent  abroad.  It  consisted 
of  a  few  small  ships,  the  biggest  being  an  old  and  obsolete 
British  frigate  or  cruiser  named  the  Thetis,  which  I  under- 
stood we  had  made  a  present  to  the  Prussian  Kingdom 
of  those  days.  That  squadron  was  commanded  by  an 
officer  whom  we  had  trained  in  our  navy,  as  had  also  been 
many  others  who  were  with  him.  Such  was  the  beginning 
of  the  present  great  German  navy  that  has  now  become  one 
of  the  first  in  Europe.  Her  people  are  learning  what  an 
extremely  costly  matter  it  is  to  be  strong  both  by  sea  and 
land.  If  she  ever  becomes  a  first-class  naval  power  her 
people  will  perhaps  realize  how  impossible  it  is  for  even  the 
richest  nations  to  be  pre-eminent  upon  both  land  and  sea. 

I  much  enjoyed  my  short  stay  in  Japan,  where  every- 
thing was  so  very  different  from  what  is  to  be  seen  there 
now.  I  found  the  men  extremely  clever  and  the  women 
most  fascinating.  At  Yokohama  there  was  a  sort  of  Cre- 
mome  Gardens  which  were  extensively  visited  by  all 
strangers.  It  was  a  Government  institution,  and  printed 
in  large  English  letters  over  the  wooden  arch  you  passed 
under  upon  entering  the  grounds  was  :  "  For  the  amuse- 
ment of  foreigners  ;  no  dogs  or  Chinamen  admitted."  The 
Japanese  rulers  then  had  an  intense  hatred  of  the  Chinese 

91 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 


.1 


nation.  There  was  a  good  theatre  in  those  gardens,  where 
pretty  and  extremely  graceful  girls  danced  and  sang. 
Morality,  as  we  understand  the  expression,  was  not  then 
apparently  esteemed  an  admirable  virtue  by  any  class  of 
the  Japanese  people. 

We  all  rode  the  nine  or  ten  miles  that  separate  Yokohama 
from  Yeddo,  or  Tokio  as  it  is  now  called.  Our  ponies  were 
shod  with  a  sort  of  straw  pad  that  was  fastened  by  strings 
round  the  fetlock.  When  one  pad  was  lost  or  worn  out 
you  stopped  at  the  nearest  shop  and  bought  another  for 
the  decimal  part  of  a  farthing.  In  bad  weather  when  it 
began  to  rain  you  bought  a  waterproof  coat  made  of  paper 
for  which  you  paid  a  few  halfpence.  When  the  rain  ended 
you  threw  it  away. 

Yeddo  was  then  an  enormous  city.  The  frequency  of 
earthquakes  rendered  it  out  of  the  question  to  have  houses 
more  than  two  very  low  stories  in  height,  so  its  population 
may  not  have  been  as  great  as  an  English  city  of  half  its 
extent  would  be.  There  was,  I  think,  an  earthquake  each 
of  the  days  I  spent  there,  and  more  than  once  during  my 
stay  in  Japan  we  had  two,  three  and  even  four  shocks. 

Yeddo  was  divided  into  what  we  might  call  wards,  each 
ward  being  separated  from  those  about  it  by  strong  gates, 
at  each  of  which  was  a  police  guard.  Their  arrangements  in 
case  of  fire  were  extremely  good,  and  as  the  upper  story 
of  every  house  was  constructed  of  wood  and  paper,  the  fires 
were  numerous.  The  lower  story  was  built  of  stone,  each 
stone  made  use  of  being  mortised  into  those  above  and  upon 
each  side  of  it.  This  was  done  to  hold  it  together  during 
the  worst  earthquakes. 

The  position  of  Damio,  or  Prince,  was  about  the  same  as 
that  of  a  great  peer  in  the  middle  ages  must  have  been  with 

92 


YEDDO  FORTY  YEARS  AGO 

us.  When  such  a  man  of  consequence  appeared  in  the 
streets,  every  one  went  down  on  his  knees,  and  bobbed  his 
head  against  the  ground.  The  Damio's  retainers  wore  his 
crest  on  the  left  breast  near  the  shoulder,  and  as  a  rule  got 
drunk  about  sundown.  They  were  styled  yaconeens,  and 
their  social  position  would  correspond  very  much  with  that 
of  the  gentleman  hanger-on  or  retainer  in  our  great  houses 
some  four  or  five  centuries  ago. 

One  never  dared  to  go  out  in  Yeddo  after  about  4  p.m., 
for  as  a  rule  those  retainers  got  drunk  at  that  hour,  and 
any  drunken  yaconeen  you  chanced  to  meet  might  take 
it  into  his  head  to  cut  you  down.  In  fact,  all  Japan  was 
then  so  unlike  anything  in  Europe  that  I  look  back  at  my 
short  stay  there  with  the  deepest  interest  and  pleasure. 
AH  this  is  now  ancient  history,  and  the  visitor  to  any 
great  Japanese  city  in  these  days  finds  himself  amidst  a 
highly  civilized  and  very  clever  people,  and  as  safe  as  he 
would  be  in  Piccadilly  after  dark. 


93 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
The   Taiping   Rebellion,   1861 

WHILST  we  had  been  employed  in  bringing  the 
Emperor  of  China  to  reason  at  Pekin,  the  ancient 
capital  of  Nankin  was  under  the  rule  of  a  usurper  who 
styled  himself  the  Tien-wan,  or  "  Heavenly  King."  He 
had  begun  life  at  Canton  as  a  groom  to  Mr.  Roberts,  an 
American  missionary.  From  that  good  man  he  had  picked 
up  some  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  of  Christianity. 
He  was  not  only  an  apt  scholar,  but  a  fellow  of  suffi- 
cient imagination  to  invent  a  religion  of  his  own.  He 
soon  obtained  a  large  following  amongst  men  of  his  own 
class,  and  succeeded  in  collecting  round  him  a  fighting  army 
of  adventurers.  They  had  nothing  but  life  to  lose,  and  the 
Chinaman  does  not  regard  its  possession  as  highly  as  we  do. 
We  make  a  fetish  of  human  Ufe,  and  guard  it  round  with 
every  sort  of  shield  and  buckler  that  human  ingenuity  can 
devise.  We  invest  death — the  surrender  of  that  hfe — with 
every  earthly  and  repugnant  horror  that  imagination  can 
invent,  and  are  frightened  by  priestly  stories  of  the  ever- 
lasting torments  and  misery  our  souls  may  possibly,  if  not 
probably,  have  subsequently  to  endure  for  ever  in  an 
unknown  country,  from  which  return  is  impossible.  But 
not  so  with  the  Chinaman  ;  death  has  few  horrors  for  him. 
To  him  it  is  as  natural  to  die  as  to  be  bom,  and  unless  death 

94 


THE    MISSIONARY    ROBERTS 

be  accompanied  by  torture,  to  have  his  head  cut  off  cannot 
be  much  worse  than  having  a  tooth  drawn. 

The  very  poor  in  China  Hve  extremely  hard  lives,  and 
consequently  a  clever  and  successful  adventurer,  like  this 
self-styled    "  Heavenly   King,"   can   easily   coUect   around 
him  a  large  following  bent  on  a  happy,  easy  life,  even  though 
it  may  possibly  be  a  short  one.     Having  long  been  anxious 
to  visit  this  self-created  monarch,  I  started  by  river  from 
Shanghai  for  Nankin,  and  upon  landing  was  provided  with 
quarters  and  was  fed  during  my  stay  there  by  order  of  its 
new  sovereign.     I   called  upon  Mr.   Roberts,   the  former 
master  of  this  ruler,  and  found  him  an  interesting  old  man, 
with  no  remarkable  characteristics  :  he  spoke  English  with 
a   broad   American    accent.       Dressed    in    a   handsomely 
embroidered  robe  of  Imperial  yellow  silk,   and  with  his 
mandarin  hat  on,  he  looked  just  like  a  Chinaman.     With 
that  true  republican  spirit  which  bums  in  the  breasts  of 
many  in  United  States  society,  and  causes  them  to  despise 
all  titles  conferred  by  monarchs,  he  seemed  anxious  I  should 
understand  that  the  rank  his  costume  denoted,  corresponded 
exactly  with  that  of  marquis  in  England.     He  was  very 
communicative  and  interesting,  and  from  him  I  learnt  a 
great  deal  about  the  rebellion  and  its  prospects  of  eventual 
success. 

Soochow,  that  great  emporium  of  riches  and  of  silk 
manufacture,  had  recently  been  captured  and  destroyed 
by  the  rebels.  Its  loot  had  fiUed  the  coffers  of  the 
"  Heavenly  King  "  and  his  associates,  and  had  also  provided 
the  latter  with  fine  new  clothes.  That  ruler,  who  claimed 
kinship  with  our  Creator,  and  to  be  the  "  uterine  brother  " 
of  our  Saviour,  professed  to  have  frequent  visions,  during 
which  he  received   God's  orders  as  to  what  he  should  do. 

95 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

But  his  system  of  government  was  essentially  Chinese,  and 
the  executioner's  sword  was  never  allowed  to  remain  long 
in  its  scabbard.  He  had  recently  built  a  considerable 
palace,  where  he  lived  secluded  from  male  society,  sur- 
rounded by  women  only. 

Whilst  I  stood  opposite  to  it  one  day,  the  Great  Gates 
were  thrown  open  and  a  woman  appeared  carrying  a 
highly-ornamented  tray  on  which  was  a  sort  of  yellow 
despatch-box,  closely  sealed,  and  pictured  over  with 
dragons.  It  contained  an  edict  he  had  lately  determined 
upon,  and  this  was  the  manner  in  which  he  published 
it.  A  great  crowd  of  courtiers  had  assembled  for  the 
occasion,  all  of  whom  fell  at  once  upon  their  knees. 
Placed  in  a  sedan  chair  it  was  carried  off  with  great  cere- 
mony to  the  special  "  king  "  who  attended  to  such  matters, 
whilst  a  salvo  of  guns  and  the  noise  of  a  band  attracted 
pubhc  attention  to  the  event.  The  one  really  good  thing 
about  this  impostor's  rule  was — the  positive  prohibition  of 
opium  smoking.  To  distinguish  the  Taipings  from  all  other 
Chinamen  the  tail  was  abolished  and  all  were  compelled  to 
wear  their  hair  long. 

During  my  stay  in  Nankin  I  was  allowed  to  go  where  I 
liked,  and  in  my  excursions  round  the  neighbourhood  I 
usually  put  up  many  pheasants  in  the  unfilled  fields.  The 
newly-erected  rebel  fortifications  resembled  the  castles  I 
had  often  built  as  a  child  with  playing  cards  and  boxes  of 
toy  bricks.  They  were  garrisoned  by  an  undriUed,  im- 
disciplined  rabble,  and  I  soon  realized  that  the  only  strength 
in  this  rebel  movement  lay  in  the  weakness  of  the  Imperial 
Government. 

The  tombs  of  the  Ming  dynasty,  which  had  so  long  ruled 
China  before  the  Tartar  invasion  are  well  worth  a  visit,  though 

96 


NANKIN    1861 

the  rebels  had  ruined  much  of  their  beauty.  An  imposing 
avenue  from  Nankin  leads  to  them,  upon  each  side  of  which 
there  are  stone  representations  of  elephants  and  camels  and 
tigers  in  various  positions,  resembhng  in  many  ways  the 
streets  of  sphinxes  by  which  the  Pharaohs  approached  their 
ancient  and  gorgeous  temples  in  Upper  Egypt.  The  human 
figures  there  represented  have  neither  tumed-up  Tartar 
hats  nor  the  long-plaited  tails  of  recent  centuries,  showing 
they  were  sculptured  in  an  epoch  previous  to  that  of  the 
present  Manchoo  dynasty.  The  far-famed  porcelain  tower 
had  been  blown  up  by  the  rebel  barbarians,  and  was  then 
but  a  heap  of  ruins. 

A  friend,  the  partner  in  charge  of  one  of  our  great 
merchant-houses  at  Shanghai,  arrived  at  Nankin  during 
my  interesting  stay  there.  He  was  in  a  j&ne  steamer  bound 
for  Hankow,  the  head  of  the  Yangtse-Kiang  navigation, 
and  having  asked  me  to  join  him  in  the  trip,  I  did  so  with 
great  pleasure.  During  our  voyage  we  found  that  wherever 
the  rebels  had  been,  the  towns  were  in  ruins  and  the  country 
a  desert.  The  contrast  between  the  rebel  territory  and 
that  under  the  Pekin  Government  was  remarkable.  The 
portion  of  the  river  where  the  Taipings  held  sway  was 
deserted ;  elsewhere  it  was  a  great  highway  of  trade, 
numerous  junks  of  all  sizes  crowding  its  waters. 

I  left  Nankin  early  on  February  28,  1861,  on  board  a 
spacious  steamer,  and  was  glad  to  find  myself  once  more 
amongst  clean  English  people.  The  voyage  to  Hankow, 
and  also  the  cities  upon  the  Yangtse-Kiang  have  been  so 
often  described  that  I  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  scenery  we 
passed  through.  I  content  myself  with  recording  the  fact 
that  we  anchored  off  Hankow  in  twelve  fathoms  of  water  on 
March  6,  1861.       I  was  much  surprised  at  the  size  and 

VOL.  II.  97  H 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

prosperous  appearance  of  the  city,  built  upon  both  banks, 
but  was  still  more  astonished  to  find  a  large  number  of  hfe- 
boats  plying  about  in  all  directions.  They  were  painted 
bright  red  so  as  to  be  easily  distinguished  at  a  distance. 
This  was  a  great  novelty  in  a  land  where  all  classes  are 
usually  so  indifferent  to  any  care  for  human  hfe.  When 
we  landed  immense  crowds  pressed  to  see  us  ;  I  understood 
then  why  it  was  that  the  officials  who  first  came  on  board 
begged  we  should  not  beat  the  people  who  were  sure  to 
follow  us. 

A  great  wooden  archway  decorated  with  flags  and 
coloured  cloth  had  been  specially  erected  in  our  honour. 
Every  spot  of  vantage  was  occupied  to  which  a  youth 
could  climb  or  a  man  could  reach  by  pushing  and  squeez- 
ing. Little  boys  and  old  men  were  perched  upon  the 
house-tops  to  catch  a  sight  of  us  the  outer  barbarians 
as  we  struggled  with  difficulty  through  the  densely-packed 
people  into  the  sedan  chairs  waiting  for  us.  In  these 
we  proceeded  at  a  brisk  pace  along  the  narrow  thronged 
street  leading  to  the  city  gate.  Round  it  were  some  out- 
works of  recent  construction,  the  guard  of  which  turned  out 
as  we  passed,  and  although  they  freely  used  great  whips  of 
twisted  thongs,  they  had  much  difficulty  in  keeping  a  way 
cleared  for  our  imposing  procession.  We  were  received  by 
the  Viceroy  with  every  possible  mark  of  respect  in  his  great 
yamen,  or  official  residence.  Having  gone  through  the 
conventional  etiquette  of  bowing,  smiling  and  shaking  one's 
own  hands,  he  took  us  into  a  well-decorated  "  Hall  of 
Reception,"  and  motioned  us  to  seats.  There  all  the  great 
mandarins  of  the  place  were  assembled,  but  none  were 
allowed  to  sit.  Our  interpreter,  a  blue-button  mandarin, 
upon  entering  the  hall  prostrated  himself  at  the  Viceroy's 

98 


HANKOW    THE    CENTRE    OF    CHINA 

feet  bumping,  his  forehead  several  times  against  the  ground 
in  the  usual  orthodox  fashion  of  "  kow-towing." 

His  Excellency  then  put  to  us  the  usual  conventional 
questions  as  to  our  age,  etc.,  and  tea  of  an  exquisite  flavour 
was  handed  to  our  host  and  by  him  presented  with  great 
ceremony  to  us.  His  conversation  was  extremely  interest- 
ing, and  he  discussed  the  official  relations  past  and  to  come 
between  England  and  China. 

Our  interview  lasted  nearly  an  hour,  when  he  pressed  us 
to  stay  and  dine,  but  as  we  had  both  had  at  previous  Chinese 
entertainments  quite  enough  of  sea-slugs,  bird's-nest  soup 
and  eggs  that  had  been  buried  for  years,  we  politely  refused. 

Upon  rising  to  leave,  he  said  he  wished  to  present  us 
with  a  specimen  of  his  poetry  as  a  remembrance  of  our  visit. 
He  was  as  proud  of  his  handwriting  as  he  was  also  of  his 
verses,  both  accompUshments  being  unusual  with  Chinese 
generals. 

A  table  with  writing  materials  was  placed  before  him, 
the  paper  being  strips  of  red  paper  spotted  with  gold  leaf, 
and  about  seven  or  eight  feet  long  and  some  fifteen  inches 
wide.  He  wrote  rapidly  with  a  good-sized  brush,  a  servant 
holding  out  the  paper  for  him.  This  is  no  uncommon  mode 
of  paying  visitors  a  compliment,  and  such  papers  may  be 
seen  hanging  in  most  great  Chinese  houses,  as  those  then 
given  to  me  hang  now  in  my  humble  abode. 
^-  After  a  few  days'  stay  at  Hankow,  we  left  that  most 
interesting  of  well-governed  cities  and  returned  to  Shanghai. 
I  started  for  home  by  the  first  mail  steamer  that  left  for 
Suez,  but  as  I  was  leaving  my  generous  and  most  interesting 
host  told  me  as  a  profound  secret  that  he  had  just  received 
a  cypher  telegram  from  his  steamer  that  had  reached 
Woosung  a  few  hours  before,  announcing  that  the  first  shot 

99 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

had  been  fired  in  America  in  what  subsequently  developed 
into  the  greatest  fratricidal  straggle  the  worid  has  known 
for  many  centuries  ;  I  mean  the  Confederate  War.  For  at 
least  a  full  day  he  alone  in  Shanghai  possessed  this  inforaia- 
tion,  and  his  dealings  in  the  Chinese  markets  during  that 
short  time  based  upon  it,  \\-ithout  doubt,  paid  the  Dent 
House  largely.  Such  was  the  manner  in  which  great  sums 
were  then  frequently  made  through  fast-running  steamers 
by  Jardine  and  Co.  at  Hong  Kong  and  by  the  Dent  House 
at  Shanghai.  By  the  time  I  had  reached  Hong  Kong  aU 
the  world  there  had  heard  this  startling  news.  It  set  my 
brain  speculating  as  to  how  it  would  affect  England,  and 
consequently  how  it  might  influence  my  own  future  career. 


loo 


CHAPTER    XXXIV 
The  Trent  Affair — Ordered  to  Canada,  1 86 1-2 

UPON  my  return  home  from  China,  I  had  a  pleasant 
time  in  Paris,  knowing  most  of  those  who  were  then 
at  our  Embassy.  It  was  then  just  the  place  for  an  idler, 
who,  having  been  some  years  campaigning  with  no  oppor- 
tunity of  spending  money,  wishes  to  get  through  his  small 
savings  without  worry  or  trouble.  I  have  often  upon  such 
occasions  laughed  to  myself  as  I  called  to  mind  the  old 
Portsmouth  story  I  heard  when  quartered  there  years  ago, 
of  a  naval  captain  who,  having  just  been  commissioned 
to  a  ship,  in  the  old  days  of  sailing  vessels,  was  on  the 
look-out  for  a  good  crew.  Strolling  down  the  Hard,  he 
saw  "  bearing-down  upon  him "  a  sailor  who  had  been 
"  stroke  "  in  his  gig  during  his  last  commission.  On  his 
arm  was  a  full  rigged  Portsmouth  lady,  dressed,  evidently 
at  the  sailor's  expense,  in  the  brightest  of  new  and  gorgeous 
clothing,  whilst  walking  by  his  side  was  a  huge  Newfound- 
land dog  with  a  big  watch  hanging  by  a  chain  from  its 
mouth.  "  HaUoo,  Jones,"  said  the  captain,  "  you  are 
the  very  man  I  wanted  to  meet.  I  have  just  commissioned 
the  Arathusa,  and  we  saU  next  week.  I  stiQ  want  a  few 
good  hands,  and  you  must  come  as  my  coxswain."  "  Very 
sorry,  sir,"  said  Jones,  "  but  'tisn't  possible  ;  I  haven't  got 
through  half  my  money  yet."  "  But,"  replied  the  captain, 
"  you  have  still  nearly  a  week  to  spend  it  in,  and  I  can't  sail 

loi 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

without  you."  Jack  scratched  his  head,  looking  per- 
plexed and  troubled.  He  wanted  to  sail  with  his  old 
captain,  but  what  was  he  to  do  with  his  savings  ?  At  last, 
his  face  brightened  up  suddenly  ;  a  brilliant  idea  had 
come  to  him.  "  Yes,  sir,"  he  said  at  length,  "  p'raps  I  can 
manage  it ;  another  Newfoundland  dog,  another  watch, 
and  another  Poll ;  I  think  I'll  do  it."  It  was  a  bargain. 
And  so  it  was  often  with  us  officers  home  from  a  war,  and 
we  ought  to  have  known  better. 

In  the  autumn  I  visited  several  friends,  hospitable  old 
Tom  Fortescue  amongst  others,  at  whose  house  I  then  first 
met  my  wife. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  winter  of  1861-2,  I  went  to  hunt 
with  a  married  sister  in  Ireland.  She  had  bought  a  couple 
of  horses  in  the  autumn  for  me,  and  the  day  after  my  arrival 
I  hunted  one  with  the  Duhallow  Hounds,  and  the  other 
next  day  with  some  harriers  ;  they  were  both  good  fencers. 
The  third  day  there  was  no  hunting,  and  I  rode  out  with  my 
sister  to  buy  a  third  horse  I  had  seen  ridden  the  day  before, 
and  to  which  I  had  taken  a  fancy.  When  passing  the 
village  post  office,  I  asked  for  letters,  and  was  given  a 
bundle,  which  I  put  into  my  pocket.  As  we  jogged  along 
the  road  I  took  them  out  one  by  one,  to  see  from  whom  they 
came.  One  was  an  official  telegram,  and  upon  opening  it, 
I  found  it  was  an  order  to  embark  at  Liverpool  in  three  or 
four  days,  I  forget  which,  for  service  in  Canada  as  Assistant 
Quartermaster-General.  I  did  not  buy  that  third  horse, 
but  started  the  same  evening  for  London.  The  morning 
papers  had  startled  us  with  the  serious  news  of  what  is  now 
generally  known  as  the  "  Trent  Affair,"  and  this  sudden 
order  for  service  in  Canada  made  it  evident  that  war  was 
in  the  air.     What  had  taken  place  was  broadly  as  follows. 

102 


THE    TRENT   AFFAIR 

The  captain  of  a  frigate  belonging  to  the  United  States 
of  America  had  boarded  one  of  our  Royal  Mail  steamers, 
the  Trent,  and  had  taken  from  under  our  flag  Messrs.  Slidell 
and  Mason,  the  envoys  of  the  Confederate  States,  then  on 
their  way  to  Europe.  Unless  the  captured  envoys  were  at 
once  returned  and  due  apologies  made,  it  was  very  evident 
that  nothing  could  avert  a  war.  One  of  the  very  shrewdest 
of  men  and  most  sagacious  of  statesmen,  Mr.  Abraham 
Lincoln,  was  then  President,  and  was  determined  to  crush 
what  the  people  of  the  Northern  States  regarded  as  the 
rebellion  of  the  Southern  States.  But  he  was  wise  enough 
to  realize  that  he  could  not  do  so  if  our  fleet,  by  keeping 
open  the  Southern  ports,  enabled  the  young  Confederacy 
to  obtain  from  Europe  everything  they  required  for  their 
war.  Without  doubt,  thousands  of  recruits  from  all  parts 
of  Europe  would  have  poured  in  through  the  ports  we  should 
keep  open.  He  therefore  most  wisely  determined  to  disown 
the  over-zealous  act  of  a  by  no  means  far-seeing  naval 
captain,  and  accordingly,  with  aU  due  apologies  for  the 
insult  offered  to  our  flag,  he  delivered  over  to  us  the  envoys 
who  had  been  taken  by  force  from  a  British  merchant  ship. 
Thus  ended  an  episode  that  must  have  brought  on  a  terrible 
war  if  the  United  States  had  been  ruled  then  by  an  ordinary 
man. 

I  went  to  see  my  old  friend  Colonel  Kenneth  Mackenzie 
who  was  going  to  Canada  as  Quartermaster-General — my 
immediate  chief — in  this  emergency.  I  had  known  him 
as  the  chief  staff  officer  at  Balaclava,  and  I  had  served 
under  him  when  he  was  Quartermaster-General  during  the 
recent  war  in  China.  He  told  me  we  were  to  embark  at 
Woolwich  the  following  day  in  the  steamship  Melbourne, 


103 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

a  well-known  "  lame  duck,"  that  he  had  condemned  as 
useless  during  the  Crimean  War,  and  she  was  known  to  be  a 
very  bad  ship  at  sea,  to  be  very  slow,  to  have  unsatisfactory 
machinery,  and,  indeed,  to  be  a  worthless  craft  in  every 
way.  He  told  all  this  to  the  authorities,  impressing  upon 
them  how  very  important  it  was  that  the  officers  of  the 
Quartermaster-General's  Department  should  sail  by  the 
fastest  steamer,  in  order  to  reach  Canada  in  time  to  make 
arrangements  for  the  reception  of  the  troops  then  under 
orders  for  Montreal  and  other  Canadian  cities.  But  all 
to  no  purpose.  He  was  told  that  the  Government  insisted 
upon  our  starting  on  the  day  named,  because  it  was  deemed 
most  desirable  to  announce  in  Parliament  as  soon  as  possible 
that  the  chief  Staff  Officers  of  the  force  bound  for  Canada 
had  already  embarked  to  arrange  for  its  landing  there,  etc. 
It  was  evidently  hoped  the  announcement  would  have 
some  important  moral  effect  in  the  United  States,  and  make 
the  Washington  Government  realize  we  were  in  earnest. 
Quantula  sapientia  !  But  as  far  as  the  army  was  concerned, 
the  unfortunate  and  obvious  result  was,  that  the  troops 
reached  Canada  before  we  did,  for  our  old  tub  of  a  ship  took 
twenty-nine  days  in  getting  to  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  That 
wretched  craft  did  everything  she  ought  not  to  have  done 
short  of  going  to  the  bottom,  and  was  everything  she  should 
not  have  been. 

We  started  from  Woolwich  Arsenal  on  December  7,  1861, 
and  at  Plymouth — three  days  afterwards — picked  up  H. M.S. 
Orpheus,  a  fine  frigate  that  was  to  be  our  convoy  to  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  She  was  to  keep  us  in  sight,  and  guard 
us  from  aU  roving  American  cruisers  during  our  passage 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  commanding  officer  on  board  the 
Melbourne  was  Colonel  Sir  J.  Gordon,  K.C.B,,  an  old  friend, 

104 


A    VERY    BAD    WINTER   VOYAGE 

who  had  been  Commanding  Royal  Engineer  of  the  right 
attack  during  our  Siege  of  Sebastopol.  He  was,  as  a  soldier 
and  in  private  life,  one  of  the  most  perfect  heroes  I  have  ever 
known.  I  do  not  believe  God  ever  created  a  grander 
character.  I  have  already  mentioned  him  in  my  chapters 
on  the  Crimea. 

It  was  bad  dirty  weather  when  we  steamed  out  of  the 
Thames  into  the  Channel,  bound  for  Plymouth,  and  it  grew 
worse  between  that  place  and  Cork.  From  that  beautiful 
harbour  we  finally  started  about  noon  on  December  14,  and 
pushed  out  into  the  great  Atlantic.  There  the  sea,  in  the 
penny-a-liner's  language,  was  "  running  mountains  high." 
I  do  not  remember  having  ever  been  on  a  sea  that  looked 
more  angry  and,  to  the  landsman's  taste,  more  hateful. 
A  few  of  us,  "  old  salts,"  had  our  meals  as  best  we  could, 
holding  on  with  one  hand  as  we  fed  ourselves  with  the  other  ; 
but  as  a  rule  nearly  every  one  was  very  sick.  We  lost  sight 
of  our  convoy  in  the  afternoon  of  the  i6th,  and  though  we 
fired  guns  by  day  and  burnt  blue  lights  by  night,  we  never 
saw  her  again  during  the  voyage.  When  we  last  caught 
sight  of  her  she  was  roUing  heavily,  and  dipping  her  leeward 
yards  in  the  sea  as  she  did  so.  I  presume  she  reached  her 
destination,  wherever  it  was,  but  as  far  as  we  were  concerned, 
she  might  just  as  well  have  gone  to  that  undefined  locality 
commonly  styled,   "  Davy's  Locker." 

The  weather  grew  worse  and  worse,  and  our  discomfort 
increased.  The  food  was  execrable,  the  cooking  worse. 
We  saw  no  other  ships  ;  occasionally  we  lay-to,  for  our 
wretched  engines  could  make  no  headway  in  such  terrible 
weather.  How  I  pitied  the  non-commissioned  officers  and 
men  of  the  field  battery  we  had  on  board.  Their  existence 
must  have  been  simply    terrible,    for  that  of  the  colonels 

105 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

on  board  the  ship  was  bad  enough,  as  she  pitched  and  rolled, 
often  straining  as  if  she  were  going  to  pieces.  Two  Royal 
Engineer  officers  occupied  a  cabin  near  mine,  their  respective 
berths  being  one  over  the  other.  I  was  wakened  one  night 
by  terrific  screams  from  their  cabin.  I  jumped  from  my 
cot,  and  rushing  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  found  that  the 
ship,  having  made  a  more  than  usually  heavy  roll,  the 
upper  berth  had  given  way — everything  on  board  that  ship 
seemed  to  give  way  on  the  least  provocation — and  coming 
down  with  its  six  feet  high  occupant  upon  the  stomach  of  the 
officer  sleeping  below,  caused  him  in  his  pain  and  confusion 
to  imagine  the  ship  was  going  down  with  all  North  America 
on  top  of  him.  I  think  my  reader  will  sympathize  with  the 
poor  devil  below,  who  was,  however,  fortunately  for  himself 
a  fat  man  of  considerable  girth.  As  it  turned  out,  he  was 
more  frightened  than  hurt. 

Upon  reaching  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Nova  Scotian 
shores,  we  discovered  that  the  captain  had  never  been 
there  before,  and  knew  nothing  about  Halifax  or  of  the 
entrance  to  its  harbour,  or  of  its  adjoining  rock-bound  coast. 
The  weather  was  still  bad,  and  provisions  for  the  officers 
mess  began  to  run  out,  as  did  also  the  coal  supply  for  our 
boilers.  Our  skipper — who  asked  the  advice  of  every  one 
who  would  give  it — proposed  to  run  for  Sydney,  in  Cape 
Breton  Island,  where  there  are  good  coal  mines.  The  only 
man  on  board  who  had  ever  been  to  Halifax  was  the  portly 
captain  of  sappers,  who  had  been  recently  nearly  squashed 
under  the  falling  berth.  He  was  one  of  those  dangerous 
men  who  never  confess  they  cannot  answer  everj'  question 
put  to  him,  no  matter  what  the  subject  may  be.  You 
might,  however,  in  this  man's  case,  have  safely  bet  three 
to  two  that  he  was  wrong  in  every  answer  he  gave.     Having 

io6 


SYDNEY  HARBOUR 

previously  served  in  Canada  he  professed  to  know  the  coast 
we  were  then  nearing,  and  gave  the  skipper  much  advice 
regarding  it,  a  circumstance  which  considerably  alarmed 
those  on  board  who  knew  our  engineer  captain  best. 

In  the  course  of  my  eventful  life  I  can  recall  many 
extremely  disagreeable  nights  and  days.  Even  now  the 
remembrance  of  them  is  still  fresh  in  my  mind  ;  and  amongst 
them,  very  high  up  towards  the  boiling-point  of  my  past 
miseries,  I  place  the  Christmas  Day  of  187 1  that  I  spent  on 
board  the  steamer  Melbourne.  We  lay-to  most  of  the  day- 
light, steaming  hard  to  try  and  keep  her  inconstant  head 
to  the  wind,  as  she  plunged  and  rolled,  shipping  tons  of 
water  as  she  did  so.  She  was  a  craft  with  a  poop  under 
which  was  the  cuddy  where  we  fed.  Cooking  that  day 
was  out  of  the  question.  The  waves  frequently  broke  over 
the  deck,  and  the  wind  was  terrific.  To  lie  in  a  dark  cabin 
below,  where  there  was  no  ventilation,  was  impossible, 
so  I  sat  on  a  barrel  in  the  corner  of  the  cuddy,  the  three  other 
corners  being  similarly  occupied  by  shipmates.  Many  seas 
broke  in  through  the  door  which  opened  upon  the  deck, 
and  swashed  freely  and  loudly  backwards  and  forwards 
through  the  place.  We  fed  that  day  as  best  we  could, 
sur-le-pouce,  upon  sardines,  or  whatever  we  could  get  that 
required  no  cooking.  The  position,  though  amusing  as  a 
recollection  now,  then  soon  palled  upon  me.  All  reading 
and  writing  were  impossible,  for  we  had  as  much  as  we 
could  do  to  retain  our  far  from  secure  position  on  the 
barrels. 

However,  at  last  we  found  ourselves  in  the  smooth  waters 
of  Sydney  Harbour.  As  the  whole  country  was  already  deep 
in  snow,  and  as  most  of  the  population  only  spoke  Gaelic, 
there  was  little  to  tempt  us  ashore.     A  battalion  of  the 

107 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Scots  Guards  had  recently  put  in  there  for  coals,  and  the 
mhabitants  in  wild  delight  could  apparently  think  of  little 
else  than  their  splendid  pipers,  and  of  a  very  handsome 
young  Scotch  peer,  who  had  won  all  hearts  because  he 
spoke  Gaelic,  and  had  fascinated  them — especially  the 
women — by  his  kilt  and  his  graceful  bearing  in  the  sword 
dance. 

The  first  news  we  heard  from  shore  was  that  the  Prince 
Consort  was  dead.  How  all  hearts  on  board  went  out  to 
the  poor  widowed  Queen,  so  dear  to  all  her  soldiers.  There 
was  silence  on  board  for  some  time  when  this  intelligence 
became  known. 

Having  taken  in  enough  coal  to  enable  us  to  reach 
Halifax,  to  which  place  we  were  now  bound  in  obedience  to 
fresh  orders  just  received,  we  again  put  to  sea,  where  we 
again  had  a  bad  time  of  it.  Late  one  evening  we  almost 
put  our  bowsprit  into  the  entrance  to  that  harbour,  having 
nearly  come  abreast  of  the  lighthouse  ;  but  as  the  night 
was  so  dark,  and  as  no  pilot  came  off  to  help  us,  our  skipper 
thought  it  more  prudent  to  turn  back  into  the  open  sea, 
and  there  await  daybreak.  However,  we  were  at  anchor 
safely  in  the  harbour  before  noon  the  following  day,  January 
5,  1862.  There  we  found  a  great  ship  with  a  battalion  of 
the  Grenadier  Guards  on  board.  She  had  tried  to  get  up 
the  St.  Lawrence,  and  although  she  had  one  of  the  most 
experienced  of  captains  on  board,  the  attempt  had  to  be 
abandoned,  and  he  turned  round  and  made  for  Halifax. 

It  was  a  matter  of  some  importance  that  we,  the  Staff 
Officers,  should  get  to  Montreal  as  quicldy  as  possible,  so 
after  many  consultations  with  General  Sir  Hastings  Doyle, 
who  commanded  the  troops,  and  was  also  Governor  in  Nova 
Scotia,   it  was  decided  we  should  go  round  by   Boston, 

108 


BOSTON    HARBOUR 

Massachusetts,  whence  there  was  a  good  railway  service  to 
Montreal. 

The  "Trent  Affair  "  had  been  apologized  for,  the  Southern 
envoys  had  been  sent  back  to  us,  and  war  had  been  thus 
happily  averted.  It  was,  however,  thought  desirable  in 
Halifax  that  we  should  erase  the  military  titles  attached 
to  the  names  on  our  baggage,  and  we  were  warned  to  show 
ourselves  in  public  places  there  as  little  as  possible. 

In  those  days  the  Cunard  Mail  Steamers  from  Liverpool 
called  at  Halifax  en  route  for  Boston,  so  we  all  started  in 
the  first  of  those  vessels  to  arrive  there.  On  board  of  her 
were  several  charming  New-England  people,  and  amongst 
them  one  or  two  gentlemen  whom  I  had  met  in  China. 
As  we  steamed  into  Boston  Harbour,  one  of  them,  who  had 
been  extremely  kind  to  all  of  us  during  the  voyage,  ex- 
plained to  me  the  points  of  general  interest  in  the  surround- 
ing scenery.  Up  to  that  date  I  had  never  read  any  good 
work  upon  the  war  in  which  General  Washington  had  won 
independence  from  our  unwise  King,  and  from  his  idiotic 
Minister,  Lord  North.  Sir  George  Trevelyan's  charming 
and  classic  work  on  the  subject  has  since  taught  most  of  us 
the  story  of  Bunker's  HiE  ;  but  in  those  days  few  English- 
men knew  much  about  the  American  War  of  Independence 
beyond  the  fact  that  we  had  got  the  worst  of  it  throughout 
aU  its  phases.  I  had  of  course  often  heard  of  Bunker's 
Hill,  and  in  a  vague  way  I  had  always  imagined  it  was  the 
name  of  one  of  the  many  victories  our  old  colonists  had  won 
over  us  in  their  revolutionary  war.  When  my  American 
friend  therefore  waved  his  hand  solemnly  towards  the 
hill  named  after  Mr.  Bunker,  calling  my  attention  to  it, 
not  wishing  to  show  my  besotted  ignorance  of  American 
history,  I  said  with  an  enforced  sigh,  intended  to  express 

109 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

my  sorrow  for  our  defeat  upon  that  occasion  :  "  Ah  !  that 
was  a  dreadful  disaster  for  us."  In  an  instant  I  reaUzed  how 
absolutely  I  had  "  put  my  foot  in  it,"  for  it  at  once  brought 
forth  the  rejoinder  :  "I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,  Bunker's  Hill 
was  a  victory  for  the  English."  I  have  never  felt  more 
"  shut  up  "  in  my  Hfe.  May  I  venture  to  hope  that  the 
Enghsh  boys  of  to-day  are  better  instructed  in  American 
history  than  they  were  when  I  wore  a  jacket,  and  was  not 
allowed  pockets  in  my  trousers  lest  I  should  always  have 
my  hands  in  them. 

When  we  landed,  we  encountered  from  all  we  met  that 
mixture  of  kindness  and  hospitality  which  are  the  most 
prominent  characteristics  of  the  American  gentleman. 
My  friend  from  China  took  me  and  another  officer  to  see 
all  the  remarkable  sights  in  what  was  then  the  very  English- 
looking  city  of  Boston.  In  the  Stock  Exchange  we  met 
with  a  sort  of  ovation  from  the  very  men  who  had  so  recently 
denounced  England,  "  lock,  stock  and  barrel,  Bob  and 
sinker."  I  was  shown  the  relics  of  well  won  victories  over 
us  in  their  great  War  of  Independence.  Over  these  trophies 
was  hung  a  shield  charged  with  the  Washington  family 
arms,  and  I  then  heard  for  the  first  time  that  the  "  Stripes  " 
of  the  United  States  standard  had  been  copied  from  that 
escutcheon,  both  in  shape  and  colour.  Perhaps  many 
English  people  may  even  still  be  as  ignorant  of  that  fact 
as  I  was  then. 

A  long  and  a  very  dreary  journey  in  an  American  railway 
carriage  brought  us  to  the  bright  and  cheerful  and  beauti- 
fully-placed city  of  Montreal.  Oh  !  how  cold  that  journey 
was  !  And  how  glad  I  was  to  find  myself  at  last  in  the 
stuffy  rooms  of  a  Canadian  hotel. 

Sir  Fen  wick   Williams   of   Kars   was   then   the   general 

no 


CANADIAN    GRAND    TRUNK    RAILWAY 

commanding  in  British  North  America,  a  very  handsome 
old  gentleman,  with  charming  manners.  There  was  a 
great  deal  of  work  to  be  got  through  in  the  hiring  of  suitable 
buildings  for  conversion  into  temporary  barracks,  and  in  the 
provision  of  furniture  and  stores,  etc.  But  I  was  in  a  few 
days  sent  off  to  Riviere  de  Loup,  then  the  most  Eastern 
terminus  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway.  My  orders  were 
to  make  all  the  necessary  arrangements  for  the  housing 
for  one  night,  and  the  daily  despatch  to  Montreal  of  the 
detachments  arriving  there  in  sledges  from  Nova  Scotia. 
A  more  tedious  or  a  more  uncomfortable  railway  journey 
I  never  had  than  that  I  then  made  from  Montreal  to  Riviere 
de  Loup.  The  carriages  were  dirty  and  very  stuffy,  and 
the  only  food  obtainable  at  the  station  was  simply  garbage. 
Fortunately  there  was  a  French-Canadian  gentleman  going 
as  far  as  Quebec,  who  had  a  weU-stored  hamper  supplied 
for  his  journey  by  a  careful  wife.  He  kindly  allowed  me 
to  share  in  his  good  things.  A  brace  of  Canadian  priests 
and  some  "  habitants,"  all  muffled  up  in  buffalo  skin  coats, 
and  one  or  two  local  commercial  travellers,  were  the  only 
occupants  of  the  "  sleeping  car,"  in  which  I  travelled  for 
over  thirty-six  hours. 

The  military  staff  at  Riviere  de  Loup  consisted  of  a  medical 
officer — now  Sir  Antony  Home,  V.C.  and  K.C.B.,  who  had 
been  the  surgeon  in  charge  of  my  battalion  throughout  the 
Indian  Mutiny — and  a  commissary  general.  The  former, 
the  most  highly  gifted  and  educated  of  interesting  com- 
panions, was  one  of  the  ablest  military  doctors  I  ever  knew. 
It  was  a  real  boon  to  find  such  a  comrade  in  that  most 
out-of-the-way  corner  of  our  empire.  No  one  in  the  village 
could  speak  English,  and  I  had  to  learn  a  little  of  the 
Canadian-French    patois    "  to    get    along    with."     I    had 

III 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

plenty  of  time  for  reading  ;  I  sketched  a  little,  and  learned 
to  walk  on  snow  shoes.  Upon  inquiry  I  found  that  the 
seigneur  was  Scotch  by  descent,  and  although  he  could  not 
speak  English  he  maintained  the  credit  of  his  Scotch  fore- 
bears by  a  decided  predilection  for  whisky.  He  lived  in  a 
good  house  surrounded  by  what  was  in  summer  very  possibly 
a  pretty  garden.  He  told  me  he  had  inherited  his  surname 
from  his  great-grandfather,  who  had  been  a  subaltern 
officer  or  a  sergeant — I  forget  which — in  Wolf's  army  at 
the  taking  of  Quebec,  and  that,  like  many  other  important 
Highlanders  in  that  army,  his  forefather  had  been  given 
a  French  seigneury,  that  of  Riviere  de  Loup  being  the 
reward  for  his  services.  Since  then,  by  inter-marriage, 
the  family  had  become  French  in  all  but  name  and  the 
colour  of  their  hair. 

In  early  days  I  had  read  Fenimore  Cooper's  novels 
with  great  pleasure.  They  were  "  boys'  stories  "  in  every 
sense,  full  of  adventures  in  the  backwoods,  and  of  fights 
with  painted  and  feather-bedecked  Indians.  Their  cruel 
practice  of  scalping  all  those  whom  they  killed  made  the 
relation  of  their  chivalrous  acts  and  fidehty  to  their  pro- 
mises, aU  the  more  deeply  interesting  to  a  boy.  Here  I 
found  myself  in  a  primitive  settlement  of  small  wooden 
houses  on  the  edge  of  the  great,  mysterious  forest  that  was 
still  frequented  by  the  bear  and  many  sorts  of  big  game, 
and  yet  I  had  not  seen  any  descendant  of  "  Roaring  Bull  " 
or  of  the  lovely  "  Minnehaha."  I  mentioned  my  surprise 
upon  this  point  to  the  Commissariat  Officer  with  me,  who 
had  spent  many  years  in  Canada.  He  said  :  "  Oh  !  there 
are  many  Micmacs  about,  and  they  are  the  great  moose 
hunters  in  these  parts.  I  see  their  chief  very  often,  and 
if  you  would  like  to  have  a  visit  from  him  I  am  sure  he 

112 


A    MICMAC    CHIEF 

would  be  delighted  to  call  upon  you."  I  said  I  should 
much  like  to  see  him. 

A  few  days  afterwards  I  was  reading  in  my  little  room 
in  the  inn,  when  my  honest  old  soldier  servant  came  in  to 
announce  a  visitor.  My  man  was  a  curious  old  "  file,"  who 
never  laughed,  and,  without  being  at  all  grave  in  disposition, 
seemed  to  have  no  appreciation  of  a  joke  nor  of  the  amusing 
side  of  life.  But  when  anything  occurred  out  of  the  usual 
current  of  his  daily  occupations  that  would  have  interested 
or  amused  most  men,  his  sentences  partook  of  grunts  more 
than  of  ordinary  expressions  of  opinion,  or  than  any  common 
description  of  the  event  he  wished  to  report.  "  There  is 
a  man  downstairs,  sir,  who  says  the  Commissary  Officer  has 
sent  him  to  see  you."  "  Oh,  that  must  be  the  old  Indian 
chief ;  bring  him  up."  In  a  few  minutes  my  solemn 
servitor  ushered  in  an  extremely  dirty  looking  fellow, 
who  announced  himself  by  a  high-sounding  Indian  title. 
As  soon  as  the  door  was  shut,  a  horrible  smell  of  whisky 
perv^aded  my  little  room.  My  Indian  friend  was  in  no 
sense  drunk,  but — as  I  was  subsequently  informed — 
whenever  he  visited  the  little  village  of  Riviere  de  Loup — 
once  possibly  the  capital  of  his  forebear's  dominions — he 
spent  whatever  money  he  possessed  in  the  strong  bmrning 
intoxicating  waters  which  the  local  publican — my  landlord — 
in  defiance  of  the  law  on  that  point,  sold  him  liberally. 

I  expected,  in  my  then  ignorance  of  the  country,  to  have 
seen  a  fine,  dignified-looking  chief,  dressed  in  furs  and 
feathers,  and  endowed  with  the  solemnity  of  manners  that 
pertained  to  the  Indians  described  in  Masterman  Ready, 
that  most  thrilling  of  boy's  books.  But  I  saw  before  me 
merely  a  watery-eyed  old  rascal,  without  any  glimmer  of 
distinction  that  could  tell  you  he  sprang  from  a  long  line 

VOL.  II.  113  I 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

of  at  least  manly  ancestors.  He  began  by  expressions  of 
devoted  loyalty  to  "  the  Great  Mother,"  our  Queen,  about 
whom  all  the  Indians  I  ever  came  to  know  in  North  America 
were  always  most  deeply  interested,  and  of  whom  they  spoke 
as  other  men  would  speak  of  a  heavenly  deity.  He  showed 
me  a  very  fine  silver  medal  that  he  wore  fastened  to  a  string 
round  his  neck,  and  which  he  said  with  pride  had  been 
given  to  his  great-grandfather  by  King  George  III.  It 
was  quite  four  inches  in  diameter,  and  had  a  fine  repre- 
sentation of  His  Majesty  on  one  side,  and  an  engraved 
inscription  on  the  other.  I  should  have  liked  to  buy  it, 
but  I  never  met  with  or  heard  of  any  Indian  chief  who 
would  part  upon  any  terms  with  such  medals.  They  are 
not  only  their  "  title-deeds  "  to  their  chieftainship,  and  to 
the  territorial  possessions  they  claim — and  with  justice 
claim — but  they  are  regarded  with  the  sort  of  superstitious 
reverence  that  the  pilgrim  from  some  holy  place  attaches 
to  the  sacred  relic  obtained  there. 

I  had  some  interesting  talk  with  this  most  voluble  of 
North  American  chiefs.  He  spoke  of  the  former  greatness 
of  his  tribe,  contrasting  it  with  his  own  poverty.  When 
the  time  came  for  me  to  bid  him  good-bye,  as  I  shook 
hands  with  him  I  gave  him  a  half-crown  piece  that  I  hap- 
pened to  have  in  my  pocket  at  the  moment,  although  I 
felt  sure  he  would  forthwith  spend  it  on  drink.  He  looked 
at  it  a  moment,  and  as  he  turned  his  eyes  once  more  upon 
me,  he  said  :  "  Won't  you  make  it  a  dollar  ?  "  I  felt  truly 
sorry  for  him  in  my  heart,  especially  as  I  knew  that  his 
degradation  was  the  result  of  the  white  man's  rule,  and 
before  the  booted  European  had  ever  been  seen  in  the 
forests  of  Canada,  their  Indian  inhabitants  led  a  healthy 
life  of  savagery  undegraded  by  the  craving  which  we  had 

114 


MONTREAL 

imbued  them  with  for  strong  drink — that  accursed  poison 
which  Europeans  introduce  into  all  lands  they  invade. 

Except  that  every  day  about  a  hundred  British  soldiers 
spent  the  night  in  the  village,  their  officers  being  accom- 
modated in  the  little  inn  where  I  lodged,  I  lived  very  much 
as  I  should  do  in  a  foreign  country.  The  life  was  monoton- 
ous, and  I  began  to  realize  that  a  country  covered  with 
several  feet  of  snow  for  about  half  the  year  did  not  afford 
the  most  beautiful  of  landscapes,  I  was  not  sorry  when 
I  saw  my  last  detachment  through  the  station,  and  was 
able  to  follow  in  its  wake  to  Montreal.  There  I  soon  settled 
down,  and  spent  several  happy  years  amongst  very  pleasant 
people.  I  made  many  trips  to  the  United  States,  and  made 
friends,  with  some  of  whom  I  have  ever  since  been  intimate. 
I  Uved  at  Montreal,  then  our  military  headquarters  in 
North  America,  and  had  the  advantage  of  serving  there 
for  some  time  under  Colonel  Jock  Mackenzie,  who  was  my 
immediate  master.  From  him  I  learnt  a  great  deal  pro- 
fessionally. He  was  a  first  rate  staff  officer,  a  most  genial 
companion,  a  gentleman  in  all  the  highest  acceptation  of  that 
term,  and  a  firm  and  most  lovable  friend. 

Life  in  Montreal  was  very  pleasant.  Of  course  I  bought 
horses  and  a  sledge,  in  which  I  daily  drove  very  charming 
women,  both  Canadian  and  American.  Some  extremely 
nice  Southerner  families  had  taken  refuge  in  Montreal,  and 
added  much  to  its  social  amusements.  There  was  a  skating 
rink  where  every  one  performed  daily  on  the  ice,  a  regi- 
mental band  adding  much  zest  to  the  exercise.  The  garrison 
consisted  of  two  battalions  of  Foot  Guards,  one  of  the  Line 
and  a  battery  of  Field  Artillery.  The  general  commanding 
the  troops  in  the  province  of  Quebec — to  which  Montreal 
belongs — was  Sir  James  Lindsay,  an  able  energetic  soldier, 

115 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

whose  heart  was  in  his  work,  and  one  of  the  most  charming 
men  I  ever  knew.  He  was  the  Hfe  and  soul  of  the  place, 
and  as  great  a  favourite  with  the  Canadians  as  he  was  with 
the  troops  under  his  command.  We  had  very  successful 
garrison  theatricals  in  the  winter,  and  many  were  the 
sledge  expeditions  we  made  into  the  neighbouring  country. 
Altogether,  it  was  an  elysium  of  bliss  for  young  officers, 
the  only  trouble  being  to  keep  single.  Several  impression- 
able young  captains  and  subalterns  had  to  be  sent  home 
hurriedly  to  save  them  from  imprudent  marriages.  Al- 
though these  Canadian  ladies  were  very  charming  they 
were  not  richly  endowed  with  worldly  goods. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Lord 
Mount-Stephen,  now  one  of  my  oldest  and  best  of  friends, 
and  to  whom  I  dedicate  these  volumes.  It  is  to  his  pluck 
and  enterprise  we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  the  great  railway 
which,  running  over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  unites  the 
British  provinces  on  the  Pacific  with  those  in  the  valley 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  on  the  seaboard  of  the  Atlantic. 


ii6 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
Visit  to  the   Confederate  Army,    1862 

BEFORE  the  Great  Republic  of  the  West  had  completed 
a  century  of  independent  national  existence,  a 
terrible  internecine  war  threatened  its  destruction.  The 
events  at  the  time  monopolized  the  attention  of  all  the 
soldiers  and  statesmen  in  the  civilized  world.  It  was  an 
attempt  upon  the  part  of  the  Southern  States  to  sever  their 
political  connexion  with  the  United  States,  and  to  set  up 
for  themselves  as  an  independent  Commonwealth.  That 
war  was  full  of  incidents  which  do  honour  to  both  belli- 
gerents, now  again  one  nation.  But  its  history  also  con- 
tains many  lessons  for  all  non-military  nations,  ourselves 
for  example,  whose  Army  affairs  are  ruled  in  an  absolute 
fashion  by  a  political  civilian  as  War  Minister. 

The  result  of  the  battle  of  "  Bull  Run,"  in  July,  1861, 
had  taught  Mr.  Lincoln's  Government  the  absurdity  of 
having  trusted  to  a  purely  civilian  army  to  put  down  this 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Southern  States.  That  novel 
experiment  "had  proved  a  terrible  failure.  The  nation 
that  had  lately  been  so  confident  of  capturing  Richmond, 
was  now  anxious  for  the  security  of  Washington."  ^ 

1  This  refers  to  the  period  when  the  battle  of  Antietam  was 
fought.  See  p.  210,  vol.  i.,  of  the  late  Colonel  Henderson's  delightful 
and  instructive  work  on  Stonewall  Jackson  and  the  American  Civil 

117 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

The  shrewd,  the  wise  Mr,  Lincoln  seems  to  have  quickly 
taken  in  the  position.  Hitherto  he  had  listened  too  much 
to  his  Ministers,  but  now  he  turned  for  advice  to  professional 
soldiers,  as  he  would  have  done  to  the  best  available  sur- 
geon had  he  broken  his  leg.  Thenceforth  every  effort  was 
made,  with  the  best  military  assistance  available,  to  create 
a  fighting  army  upon  military  lines,  the  component  parts 
of  which  should  be  capable  of  acting  together  in  a  well 
planned,  well  understood  scheme  of  campaign. 

But  Mr.  Davis,  on  the  other  hand,  though  honest  and 
hardworking  and  with  far  abler  military  advisers  round 
him,  lacked  the  solid  wisdom  to  follow  Mr.  Lincoln's 
example,  being  puffed  up  with  a  belief  in  his  own  superior 
wisdom.  He  seemed  to  think  that  because  he  was  clever, 
could  speak  upon  most  topics  very  glibly,  and  was  un- 
doubtedly a  sharp,  able  politician,  he  must  therefore  be 
also  fuUy  competent  to  rule  an  army  and  to  devise  military 
campaigns.  In  the  manipulation  of  party  questions  he 
knew  himself  to  be  far  superior  to  Generals  Lee,  Stonewall 
Jackson,  Johnson,  and  the  other  eminent  strategists  at 
his  command  :  may  he  not  in  all  good  faith,  though  in 
equally  wide  folly,  have  argued  to  himself  that  he  must 
therefore  be  also  a  better  judge  upon  aU  important  mihtary 
questions  ?  I  can  account  for  his  conduct  in  no  other 
way,  any  more  than  I  can  explain  to  my  own  inward  satis- 
faction how  it  is  that  Mr.  John  Bull,  so  wise  in  commerce 
and  in  the  everyday  government  of  his  great  public  busi- 
ness, should  always  prefer  to  place  the  healthy  well-being 

War.  I  wish  all  our  ofi&cers  would  read  it.  They  would  find  its 
well  told  story  as  intensely  interesting  as  its  teaching  is  sound  and 
full  of  useful  advice  for  all  Englishmen  of  to-day.  Colonel  Hender- 
son's death  was  not  only  a  serious  loss  to  the  army,  but  to  the 
nation  also. 

ii8 


MR.    PRESIDENT   DAVIS 

and  efficiency  of  his  army  in  the  hands  of  a  quack,  rather 
than  confide  them  to  a  skilled  professional  soldier. 

Mr.  Davis'  views  upon  strategy  were  opposed  to  all  the 
teaching  of  military  history.  He  insisted  upon  trying  to 
hold  too  much  territory,  and  by  doing  so  was  forced  into 
a  wide  dispersal  of  his  few  and  small  available  armies. 
He  expended  his  strength  upon  distant  projects  where 
success  even  could  have  had  little  influence  upon  the  great 
struggle  he  had  embarked  upon.  His  military  advisers 
urged  upon  him  the  immediate  necessity  for  the  concentra- 
tion of  all  his  military  strength.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
his  political  colleagues,  to  whom  the  immutable  laws  of 
strategy  were  unsolved  riddles,  pressed  him  to  attack  the 
Federal  States  upon  what  would  appear  to  have  been  all 
the  sixteen  northern  points  of  the  compass ;  and  he  agreed 
with  them. 

Surely,  if  ever  there  was  a  cause  lost  through  ignorance 
of  the  soldier's  science  on  the  part  of  those  into  whose 
hands  a  trusting  people  had  confided  it,  the  cause  of  Con- 
federate Independence  was  lost  in  1862  by  the  military 
folly  of  Mr.  Davis  and  of  the  civilian  colleagues  who  sur- 
rounded him. 

Throughout  the  summer  of  1862  I  had  followed  every 
move  of  the  two  belligerent  American  armies  as  closely  as 
I  could  on  the  only  maps  obtainable  of  the  Southern  States. 
The  attempts  made  by  General  MacCleUan  and  other 
Northern  leaders  to  reach  Richmond  were  seriously  studied 
as  military  problems  by  most  of  our  officers  serving  in 
Canada,  several  of  whom  had  visited  the  Northern  armies, 
and  had  met  with  great  kindness  from  all  concerned.  But 
we  could  obtain  no  trustworthy  information  regarding  the 
Southern  plans,  or  operations,  or  mode  of  fighting.     The 

119 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

idea  therefore  struck  me  that,  although  it  would  be  difficult 
to  get  through  the  Northern  States  to  Richmond  as  a 
travelling  gentleman,  the  attempt  would  be  weU  worth 
making.  I  knew  from  personal  experience  how  much  all 
loafers  are  hated  at  the  Headquarters  of  every  army  in  the 
field.  But  I  felt  a  sort  of  justification  in  presuming  to  inflict 
myself  upon  the  staff  of  the  Confederate  army,  should  I 
succeed  in  joining  it,  because  I  had  myself  so  often  been 
similarly  bored  by  the  presence  of  travelling  gentlemen  at 
the  Headquarters  of  armies  with  which  I  happened  to  be 
serving  in  the  field. 

I  obtained  two  months'  leave  from  the  general  officer 
commanding  in  Canada,  who  had,  however,  no  notion  of 
what  my  plans  were. 

Lord  Edward  St.  Maur,  who  had  recently  been  travelling 
in  the  United  States,  had  stayed  a  few  days  with  me  in 
Canada  before  he  left  for  England.  We  had  talked  much 
of  the  events  of  the  war  between  the  Northern  and  Southern 
States,  and  of  the  recent  operations  of  their  respective 
armies.  Influenced  by  what  he  told  me  of  Southern  affairs, 
I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  try,  by  hook  or  by 
crook,  to  reach  the  army  of  Virginia  then  commanded  by 
that  greatest  of  all  modern  leaders.  General  Lee.  Lord 
Edward  St.  Maur  gave  me  a  letter  to  a  friend  of  his  in 
Baltimore,  who,  he  said,  was  in  a  position  to  advise  me  as 
to  how  I  could  most  easily  accomplish  that  object.  He  was 
a  rich  Southerner  of  the  very  best  sort,  and  no  praise 
could  be  higher. 

When  I  was  passing  through  New  York  on  my  way  South, 
the  world  was  startled  by  the  news  that  General  Lee  had 
assumed  the  offensive,  had  crossed  the  Potomac  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  and  was  marching  upon  Washington. 

120 


GENERAL    LEE    CROSSES    THE    POTOMAC 

This  news  spread  dismay  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  Cabinet.  They 
had  tried  all  sorts  of  generals,  and  one  after  another,  all 
had  failed  to  reach  Richmond  or  defeat  General  Lee,  still 
more  to  bring  the  South  into  subjection.  In  other 
words,  those  generals  had  been  soundly  beaten.  General 
MacClellan,  by  far  the  best  of  them — cried  up  at  first  as  a 
"  second  Napoleon  " — had  not  fulfilled  the  expectations 
of  his  countrymen.  He  was  said  to  be  a  cunctator, 
and  was  dismissed.  Then  came  a  series  of  very  inferior 
generals,  who  talked  big  and  did  nothing.  One  had  an- 
nounced, upon  assuming  command,  that  "  thenceforth  his 
headquarters  would  be  in  the  saddle."  But  before  many 
weeks  I  saw  that  saddle  and  all  his  smart  uniform  exhibited 
in  the  shop  windows  of  a  Richmond  tailor,  the  result  of  his 
defeat. 

Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  advisers  were  at  their  wits'  end. 
Here  was  the  redoubtable  Lee  actually  across  the  Potomac 
with  an  army  marching  upon  Washington.  WTiat  was  to 
be  done  ?  With  his  usual  clear-sightedness,  Mr.  Lincoln 
at  once  determined  to  recaU  General  MacClellan,  whom  he 
had  so  lately  dismissed.  He  realized  that,  with  aU  his 
shortcomings,  he  was  the  only  leader  known  then  in  the 
Union  States  who  could  restore  public  confidence.  He 
alone  had  sufficient  reputation  with  the  Northern  soldiers 
to  bring  them  again  together  as  an  army.  It  required  to 
be  a  really  sound  and  thoroughly  good  army  that  would 
have  any  chance  against  the  army  of  Lee,  a  general  of  whom 
aU  the  old  officers  of  the  United  States  army  most  justly 
had  the  highest  opinion. 

I  do  not  wish  to  overload  my  story  with  descriptions 
of  wars  in  which  I  took  no  part.  I  shaU  only,  therefore, 
refer  in  a  general  way  to  the  position  of  the  two  hostile 

121 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

armies    then   facing    one  another    in    the  valley  of  the 
Potomac. 

The  Southern  cause  in  Virginia  throughout  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1862  had  been  very  successful.     General 
MacClellan  with  his  splendidly  equipped  army  had  been 
driven   from   "  the  peninsula,"   and  the  boastful  General 
Pope  had  been  made  short  work  of  on  the  Rappahannock. 
Both  had  utterly  failed  in  their  attempt  to  reach  Richmond, 
and  their  defeated  and  demoralized  troops  had  taken  refuge 
near  Washington.     They  were  unable  to  cope  with  General 
Lee's  army,  though  it  was  far  inferior  in  strength.     In  fact, 
the  Confederates  had  won  aU  along  the  line,  thanks  to  the 
ably  conceived  and  well  calculated  strategy  of  that  great 
Virginian  leader,  to  the  brilliant  tactics  of  StonewaU  Jackson 
and  other  capable  soldiers,  and  to  the  superior  fighting 
qualities  of  their  splendid  and  patriotic  rank  and  file.   That 
campaign  was  a  masterpiece  both  in  conception  and  in 
execution,  and  did  high  honour  to  the  soldierlike  spirit  and 
patriotism  of  the  ill-shod,  overworked,  and  badly  clothed 
regimental  officers  and  men  of  the  Southern  army.     Ac- 
cording to  my  notion  of  military  history,  there  is  as  much 
instruction,  both  in  strategy  and  tactics,  to  be  gleaned  from 
General  Lee's  but  little  studied  operations  of  1862  as  there 
is  to  be  found  in  Napoleon's  campaign  of  1796,  which  we 
aU  read  so  attentively  and  recommend  others  to  master 
thoroughly,  and  to  inwardly  digest. 

Throughout  the  early  part  of  1862  General  Lee's  strategy 
had  been  of  the  defensive  order,  whilst  his  tactics  were 
decidedly  offensive  in  character.  Though  badly  found  in 
all  the  weapons,  ammunition,  military  equipment,  etc., 
required  for  soldiers  in  the  field,  his  army  had  nevertheless 
achieved  great  things.     He  already  felt  that  his  men  had 

122 


GENERAL   LEE'S    PLAN   OF   CAMPAIGN 

learnt  self  confidence  by  victory  and  the  pride  it  inspires, 
and  he  as  naturally  assumed  that  the  defeats  suffered  by 
the  Northern  troops  must  have  had  the  reverse  effect  upon 
their  morale  as  soldiers.  This  led  him  to  believe  that  the 
time  had  come  when  he  should  assume  a  vigorous  strategical 
offensive.  His  plan  was  therefore  to  strike  boldly  at 
Washington,  the  Federal  capital.  Its  capture  would 
naturally  have  a  great  moral  effect,  not  only  aU  over  the 
American  continent,  but  also  in  Europe. 

Up  to  the  autumn  of  1862  it  may  be  said,  that  the  military 
policy  of  the  Confederacy  had  been  merely  of  an  offensive- 
defensive  character.  War  with  all  its  horrors  had  not  yet 
been  brought  home  to  the  Northern  people  by  any  invasion 
of  their  territory.  Why  not  invade  Maryland  and  take 
Washington,  the  Federal  seat  of  Government  ?  The 
renown  of  such  an  achievement  would  go  farther  towards 
winning  independence  for  the  Confederacy  than  any  number 
of  great  victories  won  in  defence  of  Richmond.  This  was 
General  Lee's  opinion,  and  Mr.  Davis  accepted  it.  Stone 
wall  Jackson  had  long  urged  this  policy  of  invasion  upon 
the  Government  in  Richmond,  but  the  civilians  who  ruled 
there  did  not  understand  war's  grim  science  weU  enough 
to  adopt  it  at  once.  However,  on  September  6,  1862,  Lee's 
army,  nearly  60,000  strong,  of  whom  about  4,000  were 
mounted  troops,  crossed  the  Potomac  into  Maryland  at 
Harper's  Ferry.  But  the  men  were  so  badly  shod — indeed, 
a  considerable  proportion  had  no  boots  or  shoes — that  at 
the  battle  of  Antietam  which  followed,  as  General  Lee 
subsequently  assured  me,  he  never  had  more  than  about 
35,000  men  with  him.  The  remainder  of  his  army,  shoeless 
and  footsore,  were  straggling  along  the  roads  in  rear,  trying 
in  vain  to  reach  him  in  time  for  the  battle. 

123 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

His  worst  enemy  would  not  accuse  Lee  of  untruth  in  any 
shape,  so,  my  reader,  you  can  safely  take  that  estimate  to  be 
the  number  of  soldiers  with  which  he  attacked  and  nearly 
defeated  General  MacClellan's  great  army  at  Antietam. 

The  Southern  armies  were  in  great  and  sore  need  of  boots, 
blankets,  and  clothing  of  all  sorts.  It  was  felt  that  the 
capture  of  Washington  would  supply  them  with  all  they 
stood  most  in  need  of. 

It  was  then  a  common  idea  in  many  quarters  that  the 
French  Emperor  was  anxious  to  recognize  the  independence 
of  the  Confederate  States,  and  was  only  prevented  from 
adopting  that  course  by  England's  refusal  to  join  him  in  it. 
How  far  that  may  have  been  true  I  know  not. 

I  was  travelling  in  company  with  a  dear  friend,  Sir 
William  Muir,  the  principal  medical  officer  in  Canada, 
whom  I  had  long  known  well.  We  had  reached  Phila- 
delphia, and  there  we  decided  to  separate,  as  he  was  most 
anxious  to  study  the  medical  arrangements  of  the  Northern 
forces,  and  I  longed  to  get  into  Dixey's  land  to  see  General 
Lee's  redoubtable  army.  I  consequently  made  for  Balti- 
more, believing  that  General  Lee  would  carry  everything 
before  him  in  Maryland,  as  he  had  already  done  in  Virginia. 
There  I  should  be  in  a  good  position  to  join  him  in  Washing- 
ton, which  I  thought  he  would  reach  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days.  Immediately  upon  arrival  in  Baltimore,  I  presented 
that  one  letter  of  introduction  to  which  I  have  already 
referred,  and  was  received  with  the  utmost  cordiahty  by 
the  gentleman  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

Baltimore  was  occupied  by  a  strong  Northern  force  under 
a  general  \vith  a  German  name.  He  was  hated  by  the 
inhabitants,  who  were  decidedly  Southern  in  their  sym- 
pathies.    I  was  told  that  he  returned  this  feeling  by  being 

124 


BALTIMORE 

positively  cruel  to  all  classes  of  the  community.  I  then 
realized  how  intense  was  the  feeling  between  the  two  camps 
into  which  the  United  States  were  then  divided.  Almost 
all  the  young  Baltimore  gentlemen  had  joined  General 
Lee's  army,  so,  except  the  officers  of  the  Northern  garrison, 
very  few  men  of  the  better  classes  were  to  be  seen  in  the 
streets.  Extreme  courtesy  to  women  is  a  strong  trait  in 
the  American  character.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  so  pro- 
nounced was  the  intense  loathing  entertained  by  the  ladies 
of  Baltimore  for  all  whom  they  regarded  as  their  oppressors, 
that  they  would  hold  no  converse  with  them.  I  have  seen 
a  lady  in  the  streets  when  she  encountered  what  she  would 
have  contemptuously  styled  a  "  Yankee  officer,"  get  close 
up  against  the  wall  on  the  inner  side  of  the  footpath,  and 
draw  in  the  skirts  of  her  dress  to  mark  her  horror  of  allowing 
them  to  be  defiled  by  touching  him  as  he  passed.  He 
could  do  nothing,  and  when  I  referred  to  this  practice  in 
conversation,  I  could  see  how  much  it  amused  the  lady 
actors  in  this  little  drama.  They  well  knew  how  keenly  it 
went  to  the  hearts  of  men  who  pride  themselves  upon  their 
chivalrous  respect  for  the  weaker  sex.  Hence  the  enjoy- 
ment it  afforded  them. 

I  told  my  newly  acquired  friend  how  anxious  I  was  to 
reach  General  Lee's  headquarters,  and  he  at  once  said  he 
would  gladly  arrange  for  my  passage  into  Virginia  by  what 
was  then  known  amongst  Southerners  as  the  "  Underground 
Route."  Official  messengers  went  daily  backwards  and 
forwards  between  the  authorities  in  Richmond  and  their 
friends  in  Maryland,  and  there  was  naturally  a  considerable 
amount  of  smuggling  going  on  across  the  Lower  Potomac 
in  quinine,  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  and  other  little  things  which 
the  South  did  not  produce.     Great  prices  were  paid  for  all 

125 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

those  articles,  and  although  the  smugglers  were  often 
caught,  others  were  easily  found  to  take  their  place  in  so 
lucrative  a  trade. 

Upon  my  return  to  Canada,  I  dealt  at  some  length  upon 
all  I  saw  and  heard  during  my  visit  to  the  Confederacy  in 
an  article  published  in  the  January  number  of  Blackwood 
for  1863.  I  had  never  before  written  anything  for  any 
periodical,  and  sent  it  home  in  no  confident  spirit  that  it 
would  even  be  inserted.  I  did  not  know  Mr.  John  Black- 
wood then,  but  I  had  long  been  a  constant  reader  of  his  far- 
famed  Magazine.  To  my  intense  delight,  it  was  not  only 
given  the  foremost  place  in  the  January  number,  of  1863, 
but  I  received  a  charming  note  from  him,  in  which  to  my  as- 
tonishment he  enclosed  a  cheque  for  forty  pounds,  or  guineas. 

I  was  very  much  struck  with  the  difference  in  bearing 
of  the  Baltimore  gentlefolk  towards  me,  a  stranger — 
except  as  far  as  my  one  letter  of  introduction  went — and 
the  manner  in  which  I  was  treated  whenever  I  approached 
any  of  the  United  States  authorities  at  this  time.  The 
fact  of  being  an  officer  in  the  Queen's  service  was  a  suffi- 
cient introduction  to  any  Southern  gentleman,  whilst  it 
made  little  impression  upon  the  Northerner. 

The  first  day  of  my  stay  in  Baltimore,  when  lunching 
with  my  newly  made  friend  at  his  club,  he  asked  me  what 
I  intended  doing  that  evening.  Upon  saying  I  had  no 
engagements,  he  said,  "  Would  you  like  to  go  to  a  ball  ?  " 
"  Very  much,"  was  my  answer.  "  Then  if  you  wiU  come 
to  our  house  at  " — I  forget  the  hour — "  you  can  go  to  a 
ball  with  us,"  or  words  to  that  effect.  Accordingly  at  the 
hour  named  I  found  myself  seated  in  his  drawing-room, 
where  the  only  other  occupant  was  a  nice  old  lady.  She 
made  herself  extremely  pleasant,  and  in  a   short  time   the 

126 


A    BALL    NEAR    BALTIMORE 

door  opened  and  there  entered  a  very  pretty  girl,  of  about 
eighteen,  I  should  say.  I  was  introduced  to  her,  and  she 
asked  me  with  a  very  attractive  smile,  "  Are  you  ready  ?  " 
I  stammered  out,  "  Yes."  She  kissed  the  old  lady,  who 
was  her  grandmother,  and  of  whom  I  took  my  formal 
leave.  We  two,  the  young  girl  and  myself,  drove  off  in  a 
brougham  some  miles  into  the  country.  It  was  a  capital 
baU  ;  I  danced  and  spent  most  of  the  evening  with  my 
charming  companion,  and  was  most  hospitably  entertained 
by  the  delightful  owner  of  the  house.  Nothing  could  be 
kinder  than  the  reception  I  had  from  aU  those  I  met  at  the 
ball,  and  yet  not  one  in  the  room  had  ever  heard  of  me 
before  ;  but  I  was  an  English  gentleman — that  was  enough 
for  the  kind,  hospitable,  and  weU  bom  people  of  Maryland. 
After  supper,  and  very  late  on  into  the  night,  or  I  should 
say  early  the  following  morning,  my  most  attractive  partner 
and  I  drove  back  to  Baltimore,  where  she  dropped  me  at 
my  inn.  I  had  had  a  delightful  evening,  though  I  felt 
somewhat  shy  at  what  was  to  me  the  unusual  position  in 
which  I  found  myself.  But  to  this  weU  born  young  lady 
and  her  family  the  proceeding  did  not  seem  in  any  way 
odd  or  unusual. 

I  may  as  weU  say  here  that  there  is,  or  at  least  was,  when 
I  had  the  privilege  of  knowing  many  ladies  from  the  Southern 
States,  an  unspeakable  charm  and  fascination  about  them 
that  is  rarely  to  be  met  with  in  the  women  of  any  other 
country.  I  have  described  that  evening's  entertainment 
because  its  events  were  unlike  those  of  our  own  dull  and 
formal  procedure  in  England.  And  yet  I  am  as  certain  as 
I  can  be  of  anything  in  the  world  that  in  every  respect  the 
ladies  of  the  South  were  as  strictly  modest  and  circumspect 
as  those  of  my  own  country.     They  were,  however,  more 

127 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

trusted  by  their  parents,  and  I  believe  that  such  trust  was 
never  misplaced. 

In  a  few  days  my  kind  friend  had  made  every  arrange- 
ment for  my  "  underground  passage,"  and  also  for  that 
of  the  Honble.  Frank  Lawley,  the  recently  arrived  Times 
Correspondent.  He  too  had  been  sent  to  my  Baltimore 
friend  to  get  him  safely  across  the  Potomac  into  Virginia. 
He  had  been  Mr.  Gladstone's  private  secretary,  and  was 
well  known  in  London  society.  A  fine,  handsome  man, 
and  just  eight  years  my  senior,  he  had  seen  much  of 
political  and  social  life,  and  had  sounded  all  its  depths 
and  shoals.  I  never  knew  anyone  with  a  more  charm- 
ing voice  or  a  more  seductive  manner.  Wherever  he 
went  in  America  he  was  recognized  as  being  very  like 
the  best  pictures  of  the  great  General  Washington,  a 
fact  in  itself  that  recommended  him  strongly  to  all  classes 
both  north  and  south  of  the  Potomac  River.  Highly  culti- 
vated, he  wrote  weU  and  like  an  educated  gentleman.  He 
was  a  delightful  companion,  and  during  the  time  I  spent 
in  his  company  I  never  had  a  duj.  quarter  of  an 
hour. 

We  started  eventually  from  Baltimore  in  a  two-horse 
buggy  hired  for  the  trip.  The  driver  was  a  "  rebel,"  who 
knew  the  country  well  and  every  gentleman's  house  where 
he  could  conceal  us  when  necessary.  My  Baltimore  friend 
assured  us  we  could  rely  upon  his  devotion  and  loyalty. 
The  country  we  passed  through  was  mostly  well  cultivated, 
but  here  and  there  the  loss  of  slaves  since  the  war  began 
showed  already  its  effects  upon  many  farms.  In  several 
localities  the  tobacco  was  running  to  seed  from  want  of 
field  hands  to  care  for  that  valuable  crop.  We  met 
many  farmers,  but  all  looked  cowed  from  the  treatment 

128 


LORD    BALTIMORE'S    HOUSE 

received   from   the   United   States   mounted   troops   then 
ceaselessly  patrolling  their  country. 

Amongst  the  gentlemen's  houses  we  stayed  at  was  that 
built  by  the  first  Lord  Baltimore,  and  then  still  occupied 
by  the  Calverts,  who  claimed  to  be  his  descendants.  They 
entertained  us  most  hospitably,  although  they  said  that 
many  of  their  slaves  had  been  taken  away  by  what  they 
called  "  Yankee  patrols."  Over  the  chimneypiece  in  their 
dining-room  was  a  picture  of  Lord  Baltimore,  said  to  be  by 
Vandyke,  and  the  whole  house  had  an  English  charm  about 
it.  Built  of  red  brick  about  two  centuries  before,  it  re- 
sembled many  of  the  small  old  manor  houses  so  often  to  be 
seen  at  home.  Every  brick  had  on  it  a  Staffordshire  mark. 
This  astonished  me,  until  my  host  explained  that,  when  it 
was  bunt,  many  ships  trading  between  England  and  her 
settlements  on  the  Potomac  used  to  make  the  outward 
voyage  with  bricks  as  ballast. 

After  several  disagreeable  interviews  with  patrols  of  the 
recently  raised  United  States  cavalry,  we  at  last  reached 
a  secluded  spot  on  the  river  bank.  There  we  spent  the  night 
in  the  loft  of  an  old  tumbledown  shed  belonging  to  a  small 
farmer  who  had  recently  taken  to  the  more  lucrative,  but 
more  risky,  occupation  of  smuggling. 

Our  accommodation  was  not  first  rate.  I  had  a  dirty 
sack  for  a  pillow,  but  was  soon  sound  asleep.  Roused, 
however,  by  some  noise  about  midnight,  I  saw  Frank 
Lawley  with  the  end  of  a  lighted  candle  in  one  hand  and  a 
stick  in  the  other  chasing  the  rats  which  swarmed  there, 
and  which  had  been,  he  said,  running  over  him  very  freely. 
I  laughed  and  recommended  him  to  take  an  old  cam- 
paigner's advice  and  go  to  sleep,  rats  or  no  rats. 

Before  I  could  get  to  sleep  again  I  found  the  rats  had 

VOL.  II.  129  K 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

taken  to  running  freely  over  me  also.  When  the  morning 
sun  subsequently  enabled  me  to  see  clearly  around,  I 
took  in  why  it  was  the  rats  had  paid  us  so  much  attention 
during  the  night.  The  sack  that  had  been  my  pillow  was 
filled  with  salt  pork,  the  daily  food  of  the  slaves,  who  from 
long  custom  prefer  it  to  all  fresh  meat. 

This  was  my  travelling  companion's  debut  in  campaigning 
life,  and  the  rats  were  then  a  little  too  much  for  him.  In  a 
year's  time  from  that  date  I  have  no  doubt  he  had  learnt 
to  sleep  well,  even  when  rats  ran  freely  about  him  as  they 
had  done  the  night  we  spent  together  in  that  horrid  loft  by 
the  Potomac  River.  The  night  had  been  one  of  bad  smells, 
of  rats  and  of  dirt,  but  so  far  we  had  been  fortunate  in  escap- 
ing capture  by  the  Northern  patrols.  That  was  our  chief 
care. 

When  day  broke  the  view  was  deUghtful.  The  sun  was 
rising  over  the  river  where  it  formed  our  eastern  horizon. 
There  was  a  stillness,  a  silence  everywhere.  There  was  not 
even  a  ripple  upon  the  smooth  river  surface  on  which  the 
masts  and  yards  and  hanging  sails  of  becalmed  neighbour- 
ing ships  were  reflected  as  we  see  them  in  pictures  by 
Vanderveldt. 

The  scene  was  beautiful,  but  the  smuggler  appreciated 
only  the  rising  mist  and  the  gentle  wind  that  promised  him 
both  concealment  and  a  smooth  crossing.  Now  and  then, 
however,  his  countenance  fell  as  he  saw,  or  thought  he  had 
discovered,  some  hostile  gunboat  approaching  through  the 
haze.  He  hugged  the  northern  bank  and  kept  amongst 
the  reeds  as  much  as  possible,  to  avoid  the  searching  range 
of  the  naval  telescope,  of  which  instrument  he  told  us 
marvellous  stories  and  was  much  in  dread. 

We  dropped  slowly  up  the  river  with  the  flowing  tide, 

330 


RUNNING    THE    BLOCKADE 

and  when  it  turned  the  boat  was  anchored  close  to  shore, 
whilst  its  living  freight  took  refuge  in  a  neighbouring  shed 
surrounded  with  bushes  and  tall  reeds.  At  sunset  we  were 
off  again,  when,  after  some  hours  of  fluctuating  feelings 
ranging  from  what  seemed  to  be  the  horrible  certainty  of 
detection  to  the  delightful  hope  and  expectation  that  we 
had  escaped  unseen,  we  at  last  reached  the  creek  on  the 
Virginia  shore  to  which  our  dealer  in  contraband  goods 
was  bound.  His  face  had  been  throughout  an  interesting 
study  to  me.  Extreme  nervous  anxiety  was  depicted 
upon  it  from  start  to  finish,  which  at  times  settled 
down  into  dark  despair  when  once  or  twice  detection 
seemed  inevitable.  And  it  was  but  natural,  for  he  had  a 
wife  and  family  whose  means  of  living  were  most  probably 
dependent  upon  the  success  of  this  venture.  It  was  a 
valuable  one  to  him,  for  he  had  a  full  boatload  of  tea,  coffee, 
and  sugar  on  board,  and  we  had  to  pay  him  very  hand- 
somely for  the  extra  risks  he  ran  upon  our  account.  Upon 
landing,  we  at  once  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  Confederate 
cavalry  patrol,  whose  commanding  officer  was  a  charming 
young  Southern  gentleman.  He  said  with  many  well  spoken 
apologies  that  he  must  take  us  as  prisoners  to  Fredericks- 
burg, which  was  his  headquarters.  He  treated  us  as  his 
equals  and  with  every  kindness  in  his  power.  From 
Fredericksburg  we  went  on  to  Richmond  by  rail.  The 
road  was  extremely  rough  and  jolting,  and  many  in  the 
crowd  of  badly  wounded  men  in  the  train  had  recently  had 
their  legs  amputated.  That  train  opened  Frank  Lawley's 
eyes  to  the  horrible  side  of  war,  made  all  the  more  horrible 
in  this  instance  because  no  chloroform  or  medical  appli- 
ances of  any  sort  were  available. 
We  had  some  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  humblest  accom- 

131 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

modation  in  the  overcrowded  but  beautiful  city  of  Richmond. 
The  place  was  densely  packed  with  human  beings  of  all 
classes.  I  called  upon  the  Secretary  of  State  for  War,  a 
man  with  charming  manners,  who  was  kindness  itself  to  us. 
Piled  round  his  room  in  great  bundles  were  the  handsome 
United  States  colours  and  standards  taken  during  the 
recent  fighting  in  the  neighbourhood.  I  told  him  I  should 
like  to  visit  the  surrounding  country,  lately  the  scene  of 
such  hard  fighting,  and  expressed  a  wish  to  visit  the  bat- 
teries at  Drury's  Bluff  on  the  Potomac.  At  the  last- 
named  position  the  officer  in  command  was  Captain  Lee, 
late  of  the  United  States  navy,  a  brother  of  the  Southern 
Commander-in-Chief.  With  the  utmost  grace  of  manner 
he  at  once  acceded  to  my  requests. 

Hundreds  of  fresh  graves  marked  the  comers  where  the 
fire  had  been  hottest  on  the  battlefields  I  visited  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Cold  Harbour  and  Mechanicsville.  I 
was  accompanied  by  an  educated  officer,  kindly  sent  with 
me  to  explain  minutely  every  phase  of  those  battles.  Each 
and  all  of  them  were  remarkable  for  many  reasons,  amongst 
others  from  the  fact  that  the  great  masses  engaged  on 
both  sides  consisted  almost  entirely  of  undisciplined,  un- 
trained, and  even  of  most  imperfectly  drilled  troops.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  war  I  had  closely  followed  its  events, 
but  I  had  not  realized  how  difficult  was  the  country  through 
which  MacClellan  had  fought  in  the  hope  of  reaching  Rich- 
mond until  I  had  driven  and  walked  over  much  of  it. 
However,  I  shall  not  enter  into  details  regarding  a  cam- 
paign since  then  so  well  described  by  many  able  pens. 

To  wander  over  fields  where  lately  two  English-speaking 
armies  had  met  in  deadly  strife  was  a  sad  but  an  instructive 
opportunity  for  a  British  colonel.     The  military  debris  of 

132 


BATTLEFIELDS    NEAR    RICHMOND 

MacClellan's  army  covered  acres  of  ground,  and  many- 
thousands  of  Lee's  soldiers,  I  was  assured,  had  found  there 
the  arms,  equipment,  and  clothing  which  they  needed  so 
much.  Throughout  this  part  of  the  long  struggle  it  may 
be  truthfully  asserted  that  the  Union  Government  clothed 
and  armed  and  supplied  with  artillery  not  only  its  own 
forces  but  practically  the  Southern  armies  also. 

Much  if  not  most  of  the  fighting  near  Richmond  had 
been  in  woods,  and  it  was  curious  to  note  where  field  bat- 
teries had  cut  long  alleys  through  them,  and  where  shells 
had  exploded  in  the  trunks  of  forest  giants.  In  many 
places,  the  woods  were  riddled  with  bullets. 

The  explanation  of  the  movements  of  the  two  armies  by 
the  young  officer  who  acted  as  my  guide  was  clear  and  inter- 
esting. He  pointed  out  where  Lee  had  attacked  in  front 
whilst  Stonewall  Jackson  had  done  so  in  flank,  and  where 
MacClellan  had  only  escaped  utter  destruction  through  the 
non-execution  of  Lee's  orders.  But  the  staff  officers  on 
both  sides  were  at  first  of  little  use.  They  did  their  best, 
but  they  knew  next  to  nothing  of  their  business,  nor 
indeed  of  either  strategy  or  tactics. 

Having  seen  everything  of  military  interest  at  Richmond 
that  my  time  would  admit  of,  I  was  anxious  to  get  to 
General  Lee's  army  as  soon  as  possible,  for  the  end  of  my 
period  of  leave  from  Canada  drew  near.  The  Minister  of 
War  was  most  kind,  and  helped  me  in  every  way.  When 
he  signed  my  passport  to  enable  me  to  visit  the  army,  he  gave 
me  a  private  note  to  General  Lee,  in  which  he  wrote  to  this 
effect :  "I  have  not  asked  Colonel  Wolseley  to  take  the 
usual  oath  that  he  would  disclose  nothing  of  what  he  sees 
here  to  our  enemies,  because  I  know  I  can  rely  upon  the 
honour  of  an  English  officer."     I  was  sensibly  touched  by 

133 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

this  expression  of  confidence  in  the  honour  of  the  British 
gentleman,  and  it  made  me  weigh  all  the  more  carefully 
what  I  wrote  and  said  regarding  my  experiences  in  "  Dixey- 
land  "  when  I  once  more  found  myself  under  the  Union 
Jack, 

I  left  Richmond  by  a  very  early  train,  and  in  the  evening 
found  myself  at  Staunton,  then  the  railway  terminus  in 
the  already  much  fought-over  Shenandoah  Valley,  cele- 
brated for  its  beautiful  scenery,  fertility,  and  numerous 
historical  associations.  I  spent  a  rather  trying  night  at 
the  Staunton  inn,  crowded  as  it  was  with  hungry  soldiers 
of  all  grades.  Thence  I  had  to  find  my  way  as  best  I  could 
for  ninety  miles  to  General  Lee's  Headquarters  at  Win- 
chester. He  had  established  his  army  there  after  his 
recent  unsuccessful  attack  upon  MacClellan's  position  at 
Antietam.  The  journey  was  a  dreary  proceeding  of  several 
days,  and  made  in  a  returning  empty  ambulance  waggon  of 
a  rickety  nature.  That  four-wheeled  conveyance  required 
repairs  and  continued  nursing  to  keep  it  in  working  order. 
Fortunately,  however,  the  road  was  a  fairly  good  one,  being, 
as  I  was  told,  the  only  macadamized  highway  in  the  State. 
We  passed  numerous  large  parties  of  convalescents  on  their 
way  back  to  the  army,  nearly  all  of  whom  looked  more 
suited  for  the  hospital  than  for  a  cold  bivouac.  The  nights 
at  the  time  were  bitterly  cold,  and  the  men's  clothing  most 
insufficient.  What  misery,  what  hardships  those  poor 
Southern  soldiers  underwent,  whilst  their  highly  paid,  well 
clothed  and  well  fed  enemies,  who  had  been  collected,  not 
only  from  the  Northern  States  but  from  all  parts  of 
Europe,  were  luxuriously  provided  for. 

I  shall  not  describe  that  journey,  made  necessarily  under 
very    uncomfortable    circumstances.     But    I    reached    my 

134 


GENERAL  LEE'S  HEADQUARTERS 

destination,  Winchester,  in  the  morning  of  my  fourth  day's 
march.  In  that  overcrowded  Httle  town  I  made  the  best 
arrangement  I  could  for  bed  and  board  during  the  time  I 
was  to  be  in  the  neighbourhood. 

As  soon  as  I  could  do  so  I  proceeded  to  General  Lee's 
Headquarters,  about  six  miles  out  of  the  town,  on  the  road 
to  Harper's  Ferry.     Every  incident  in  that  visit  to  him  is 
indelibly  stamped  on  my  memory.     I  have  taken  no  special 
trouble  to  remember  all  he  said  to  me  then  and  during 
subsequent  conversations,  and  yet  it  is  still  fresh  in  my 
recollection.     But  it  is  natural  it  should  be  so,  for  he  was 
the  ablest  general,  and  to  me,  seemed  the  greatest  man  I 
ever  conversed  with  ;  and  yet  I  have  had  the  privilege  of 
meeting  Von  Moltke  and  Prince  Bismarck,  and  at  least 
upon  one  occasion  had  a  very  long  and  intensely  interesting 
conversation  with  the  latter.     General  Lee  was  one  of  the 
few  men  who  ever  seriously  impressed  and  awed  me  with 
their  natural,  their  inherent  greatness.     Forty  years  have 
come  and  gone  since  our  meeting,  yet  the  majesty  of  his 
manly  bearing,  the  genial  winning  grace,  the  sweetness  of 
his  smile  and  the  impressive  dignity  of  his  old-fashioned 
style    of    address,   come  back  to   me  amongst  the    most 
cherished   of   my   recollections.     His   greatness   made   me 
humble,  and  I  never  felt  my  own  individual  insignificance 
more  keenly  than  I  did  in  his  presence.     He  was  then 
about  fifty  years  of  age,  with  iiair  and  beard  nearly  white. 
Tall,  extremely  handsome  and  strongly  built,  very  soldier- 
like  in   bearing,    he   looked    a    thoroughbred   gentleman. 
Care  had,  however,  already  wrinkled  his  brow,  and  there 
came  at  moments  a  look  of  sadness  into  his  clear,  honest, 
and  speaking  dark  brown  eyes  that  indicated  how  much 
his  overwhelming  national  responsibility  had  already  told 

135 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

upon  him.  As  he  Hstened  to  you  attentively,  he  seemed 
to  look  into  your  heart  and  to  search  your  brain.  He  spoke 
of  the  future  with  confidence,  though  one  could  clearly  see 
he  was  of  no  very  sanguine  temperament.  He  deplored 
the  bitterness  introduced  into  the  struggle,  and  also  the 
treatment  of  the  Southern  folk  who  fell  into  hostile  hands. 
But  there  was  no  rancour  in  his  tone  when  he  referred  to 
the  Northern  Government.  Not  even  when  he  described 
how  they  had  designedly  destroyed  his  home  at  Arlington 
Heights,  the  property  on  the  Potomac  he  had  inherited 
from  General  Washington.  He  had  merely  "gone  with 
his  State  " — Virginia — the  pervading  principle  that  had 
influenced  most  of  the  soldiers  I  spoke  with  during  my  visit 
to  the  South.  His  was  indeed  a  beautiful  character,  and  of 
him  it  might  truthfully  be  written  :  "In  righteousness  he 
did  judge  and  make  war." 

I  ventured  to  mention  his  recent  battle  at  Antietam 
Creek,  and  he  at  once  talked  of  its  incidents  in  a  frank, 
open  way.  He  assured  me,  as  I  have  already  stated,  that 
at  no  period  of  it  had  he  more  than  35,000  men  in  action, 
the  remainder  of  his  troops  being  shoeless  stragglers  in  rear, 
unable  to  reach  the  front  in  time  for  his  attack  upon 
MacClellan's  position.  He  estimated  the  Northern  army 
then  opposed  to  him  at  about  twice  his  own  strength. 
Things  had  gone  wrong,  as  they  so  often  unexpectedly  do  in 
war,  and  Jackson  was  thereby  prevented  from  reaching 
the  battlefield  as  soon  as  intended.  He  discussed  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  day  most  frankly,  and  with  very  full  and 
interesting  detail.  He  spoke  very  nicely  of  General 
MacCleUan,  and  of  the  electric  effect  his  reappointment  to 
command  the  Northern  army  had  had  upon  all  its  soldiers. 
It  was  this,  I  gathered  from  his  conversation,  that  had,  in 

136 


THE    BATTLE    OF    ANTIETAM 

his  opinion,  alone  saved  Washington  from  capture  by  the 
army  with  which  he  had  invaded  Maryland.  This  recall 
of  MacClellan  had  not  been  foreseen,  as  his  recent  campaign 
in  the  Peninsula  had  been  so  disastrous  a  failure.  The 
well-known  jealousy  entertained  of  him  by  the  Ministers, 
Staunton,  Seward,  and  General  Halleck,  was  so  great,  on 
account  of  the  attachment  felt  for  him  by  all  ranks  in  the 
Northern  army,  that  his  recall  to  power  had  not  been  re- 
garded as  a  possible  factor  in  the  calculation  of  chances 
which  determined  the  invasion  of  Maryland. 

The  result  was  that  when  it  did  take  place,  Lee's  im- 
mediate designs  upon  Washington  were  checkmated.  The 
sudden  irruption  of  a  Southern  army  into  Maryland  had 
been,  however,  in  many  ways  an  advantage  to  the  Con- 
federacy. With  about  35,000  men  Lee  had  fought  a  drawn 
battle  with  MacClellan,  then  holding  a  well  chosen  position 
with  about  70,000  Northern  soldiers.  In  this  very  short 
campaign  Lee  had  captured  some  14,000  prisoners,  over 
fifty  guns,  and  great  quantities  of  stores  of  all  sorts.  This 
he  had  done  without  loss  in  guns  or  prisoners  on  his  side. 
In  subsequently  discussing  the  events  of  that  day  with 
General  Longstreet,  he  assured  me  that  if  he  had  had  but 
5,000  fresh  men  towards  evening  he  must  have  annihilated 
the  Northern  army.  He  said  that  many  of  his  men  were 
without  ammunition,  and  that  all  had  been  exhausted  by 
heavy  marching  for  some  days  previously. 

General  Lee  halted  all  the  day  after  the  battle  in  presence 
of  the  Northern  army,  and  thus  offered  MacClellan  battle, 
but  the  latter  did  not  think  it  advisable  to  accept  the  chal- 
lenge. 

With  the  Southern  army  there  was  a  total  absence 
of  all  that  is  usually  so  satisfying  to  the  artistic  eye  in  the 

137 


'      THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

camps  and  bivouacs  of  Europe.  General  Lee's  Head- 
quarters consisted  of  merely  some  seven  or  eight  small 
tents  pitched  along  a  snake  fence,  where  the  ground  was 
bad  and  rocky.  The  camp  followers  were  all  slaves,  and 
the  mounted  orderlies— called  "  couriers  "  in  America— 
usually  slept  in  the  open,  under  carts  or  waggons.  There 
were  no  mihtary  bands,  no  guards  or  sentries  about,  no  busy 
staff  officers  told  off  to  interview  visitors  and  keep  them 
from  worrying  their  general.  In  fact,  there  was  nothing 
of  the  "  pomp,  pride,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war  " 
to  be  seen  in  the  camp  of  these  earnest  patriot  soldiers. 
As  I  waited  outside  General  Lee's  tent  whilst  his  Aide  de 
Camp  entered  to  tell  him  who  I  was,  and  to  deliver  to  him 
my  letter  from  the  Confederate  Secretary  for  War,  I  re- 
marked it  had  the  name  of  a  Colonel  of  some  New  Jersey 
regiment  printed  largely  upon  it.  Subsequently  I  chaf- 
fingly  referred  to  the  fact  in  my  conversations  with  him. 
He  laughed  and  said,  "  Oh,  you  will  find  every  tent,  every 
gun,  even  our  blankets,  accoutrements,  and  all  the  military 
equipment  we  possess,  stamped  with    the  United    States 

initials." 

Poor  Southern  people  !  they  were  not  a  manufacturing 
community,  yet,  with  all  the  fighting  instincts  of  our  own 
Border  races,  they  contrived  to  supply  their  most  pressing 
military  wants  in  accordance  with  the  well  known  old 
Border  motto,  "  You  shall  want  ere  I  want." 

Shortly  afterwards  I  had  the  advantage  of  an  interview 
with  General  Jackson,  always  spoken  of  then  and  to  be 
remembered  for  all  time  as  "  Stonewall  Jackson  "  :  a  man 
of  stem  principles,  who  took  seriously  whatever  he  had 
to  do  and  in  whom  the  beautiful  side  to  his  character  had 
been  developed  by  this  war.     What  a  hero  !  and  yet  how 

138 


STONEWALL    JACKSON 

simple,  how  humble-minded  a  man  !  In  manner  he  was 
very  different  from  General  Lee,  and  I  can  class  him  with  no 
one  whom  I  have  ever  met  or  read  of  in  history.  Like  the 
great  commander  whom  he  served  with  such  knightly 
loyalty,  he  was  deeply  religious,  but  more  austere,  more 
Puritan  in  type.  Both  were  great  soldiers,  yet  neither 
had  any  Gothlike  delight  in  war.  He  did  not,  as  Lee  did, 
give  one  the  idea  of  having  been  bom  to  the  hereditary 
right  of  authority  over  others.  General  Lee,  the  very  type, 
physically  and  socially,  of  a  proud  Cavalier,  would  certainly 
have  fought  for  his  king  had  he  lived  when  Rupert  charged 
at  Naseby ;  Jackson  would  have  been  more  at  home  amongst 
Cromwell's  Ironsides  upon  that  fatal  June  14.  More  than 
any  one  I  can  remember,  Jackson  seemed  a  man  in  whom 
great  strength  of  character  and  obstinate  determination  were 
mated  with  extreme  gentleness  of  disposition  and  with 
absolute  tenderness  towards  all  about  him. 

I  had  expected  to  see  in  Stonewall  Jackson  something 
of  the  religious  moroseness  we  find  attributed  to  the 
Commonwealth  Puritan  in  our  Restoration  literature  ;  but 
he  was,  instead,  most  genial  and  forthcoming  during  the 
extremely  pleasant  hour  I  spent  in  his  tent.  In  repose  it 
might  be  said  there  was  something  sad  about  the  expression 
of  this  most  remarkable  man's  face.  As  his  impressive 
eyes  met  yours  unflinchingly,  you  knew  that  his  was  an 
honest  heart.  His  closely  compressed  lips  might  have  lent 
a  harsh  coldness  to  his  features  had  not  his  face  been  lit  up 
by  a  fascinating  smile  which  added  to  the  intense  benignity 
of  expression  that  his  Maker  had  stamped  upon  it.  In  all 
the  likenesses  I  have  seen  of  him  this  marked  characteristic 
is  wanting.  But  how  rare  it  is  to  find  it  even  in  the  pictures 
of  saints  and  angels  by  the  greatest  artists.     In  their  en- 

139 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

deavours  to  represent  it  on  canvas  or  in  marble  most  have 
missed  that  bright  hght  of  highly  gifted  benevolence  and 
spiritual  contentment  which,  without  doubt,  must  have 
pre-eminently  distinguished  the  face  of  "  Him  whom  they 
crucified." 

Lee  was  a  born  aristocrat  in  features  and  in  manner. 
There  was  nothing  of  these  refined  characteristics  in  Stone- 
wall Jackson,  a  man  with  huge  hands  and  feet.  But  he 
possessed  an  assured  self-confidence,  the  outcome  of  an 
absolute  trust  in  God,  that  inspired  his  soldiers  with  an 
unquestioning  belief  in  him  as  their  leader.  They  did  not 
ask  him  where  he  was  going  :  they  were  content  to  follow 
him.  Many  were  the  stories  told  me  on  this  score  during 
my  stay  in  Virginia.  On  the  march  through  a  village  one 
day  a  father  standing  at  his  door  saw  his  boy  go  by  in  the 
ranks.  "  Where  are  you  bound  for  ?  "  asked  the  parent 
as  he  grasped  his  son's  hand.  "  I  don't  know,  but  old  Jack 
does,"  was  the  prompt  reply.  That  was  enough  for  this 
young  soldier  ;  it  was  enough  for  every  man  who  fought 
under  Stonewall  Jackson.^ 

General  Jackson  spoke  a  good  deal  of  a  visit  he  had  once 
paid  to  England,  and  referred  with  pleasure  to  much  that 
he  had  seen  here.  He  knew  most  of  our  great  historic 
points  of  interest  and  was  well  read  in  the  events  which  had 
made  them  famous.  Before  our  conversation  ended  I 
asked  him  which  of  all  the  recollections  he  had  carried  away 
with  him  from  England  was  that  upon  which  his  memory 
loved  most  to  dweU.     He  thought  for  a  couple  of  minutes, 

^  "  Old  Jack  "  was  his  nickname  when  a  youth  at  the  far-famed 
Military  School  of  "  Westpoint  "  (the  best  of  such  schools  to  be  found 
in  any  country)  and  it  was  generally  used  by  his  soldiers  during 
this  great  war  as  a  term  of  affection  for  the  leader  they  loved  and 
would  follow  wherever  he  led  them. 

140 


GENERAL    LONGSTREET 

and  then,  turning  upon  me  those  remarkable  eyes,  ht  up  for 
the  moment  with  a  look  of  real  enthusiasm,  he  answered, 
"  The  seven  lancet  windows  in  York  Minster." 

In  the  midst  of  a  bloody  war,  in  which  his  life  was  to  be 
eventually  given  for  his  country,  his  thoughts  were  at  least 
sometimes  fixed  upon  peace  as  its  blessed  quiet  appeals  to 
most  of  us  when  in  any  of  our  glorious  Gothic  Cathedrals. 
I  have  often  since  then  stood  in  front  of  those  beautiful 
windows,  but  never  without  thinking  of  the  great  American 
patriot  in  whose  thoughts  the  remembrance  of  them  had 
been  carried  into  the  battlefields  of  Virginia. 

I  spent  a  very  pleasant  afternoon  with  General  Longstreet, 
then  highly  esteemed  as  one  of  Lee's  best  fighting  divisional 
leaders.  He  had  an  excellent  staff  about  him,  all  of  whom 
tried  to  vie  with  the  admirable  horsemanship  of  their 
general.  Longstreet  was  very  fond  of  horses,  and  rode  very 
fine  well  bred  animals.  He  was  stout  and  florid  in  com- 
plexion, and  looked  much  younger  than  either  Lee  or  Stone- 
wall Jackson.  But  his  openly  expressed  hatred  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  of  the  Administration  ruled  over  by  that  very 
remarkable  man,  was  intense  and  bitter.  When,  after  the 
war  had  ended,  Longstreet  took  employment  under  the 
United  States  Government,  his  old  Southern  associates 
ceased  to  regard  him  with  the  affection  and  respect  he  had 
inspired  them  with  upon  many  a  well  fought  battlefield. 
A  brilliant  leader  and  a  hard  hitter,  his  stories  of  the  war 
were  most  interesting.  I  saw  his  division  march  past.  It 
was  a  remarkable  sight  and  never  to  be  forgotten,  for  it  was 
unlike  anything  I  have  ever  seen,  or  until  then  had  ever 
imagined.  The  men  were  badly,  I  might  say  wretchedly, 
clothed,  and  still  worse  shod.  But  I  was  told  that  the  very 
worst  had  stayed  away  from  the  ordeal  of  having  to  parade 

141 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

their  wretchedness  before  a  stranger.  I  had  pointed  out  to 
me  many  men  of  large  properties  who  were  then  trudging 
along  in  the  ranks,  undistinguishable  from  the  mass  of 
those  around  them,  except  that,  as  a  rule,  each  of  them 
carried  a  toothbrush  stuck  into  a  buttonhole  of  his  jacket ! 
All  their  belts  and  pouches  were  marked  in  large  letters 
with  the  U.S.,  which  showed  they  had  been  taken  from  their 
enemy.  They  marched  past  well,  and,  poorly  clad  as  they 
were,  with  a  fine  soldierlike  bearing  that  convinced  all 
onlookers  like  myself  that  they  were  no  mere  imported 
hirelings,  but  citizens  fighting  for  a  cause  they  believed  in, 
were  proud  to  suffer  for,  and  were  prepared  to  die  for.  This 
Southern  army  interested  me  beyond  any  army  I  ever  saw 
before  or  since. 

I  had  much  difficulty  in  getting  away  from  Virginia,  and 
I  confess  I  left  General  Lee's  army  with  the  deepest  regret. 
It  was  an  army  of  heroes  fighting,  practically  without  pay, 
for  that  they  held  dearest  in  life,  their  "  States'  rights." 

It  is  for  the  dispassionate  student  of  history  to  gauge  : 
ist,  the  extent  to  which  free  communication  with  the 
markets  of  Europe  would  have  helped  the  Confederates  ; 
and,  2nd,  what  would  have  been  the  issue,  as  far  as  the 
Confederacy  was  concerned,  had  not  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  his 
shrewd  and  characteristic  wisdom,  acceded  to  our  demand 
for  the  immediate  surrender  of  Messrs.  Mason  and  SlideU  ? 
How  often  since  then  have  I  speculated  as  to  what  would 
now  be  the  distribution  of  national  sovereignty  upon  the 
North  American  continent  had  our  demand  been  then 
refused  at  Washington  ? 

I  would  ask  my  reader  to  study  what  the  Confederate 
States  did  achieve  even  when  cut  off,  as  they  were,  from 
all  external  help,  and  to  remember  the  victories  they  won 

142 


STATES'    RIGHTS 

with  armies  much  smaller  than  those  opposed  to  them, 
and  composed  of  men  often  barefoot  and  hungry,  as 
well  as  destitute  of  all  military  equipment  beyond  their 
rifles,  field  guns  and  ammunition  they  had  taken  in  battle 
from  their  enemy.  They  were  absolutely  cut  off  from  all 
the  markets  where  they  could  have  purchased  what  they 
so  urgently  needed  ;  their  cause  indeed  seemed  hopeless. 

I  do  not  enter  into  the  question  of  whether  their  eventual 
independence  as  a  separate  power  would  or  would  not  have 
been  a  benefit  to  America  generally  or  to  the  outside  world. 
I  confine  myself  exclusively  to  the  question  in  its  military 
and  naval  aspects.  But  as  a  close  student  of  war  all  my 
life,  and  especially  of  this  Confederate  war,  and  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  battles  fought  during  its  progress,  and 
regarding  this  question  as  a  simple  military  and  naval 
problem,  I  believe  that,  had  the  ports  of  the  Southern 
States  been  kept  open  to  the  markets  of  the  world  b}^  the 
action  of  any  great  naval  power,  the  Confederacy  must 
have  secured  their  independence.  Such  at  least  is  the 
dispassionate  opinion  of  an  outsider.  Surely  the  time 
has  come  when  the  men  of  what  is  now  the  greatest 
Power  on  earth — the  present  United  States  of  America — 
can  afford  to  hear  such  an  opinion  without  any  feeling 
against  the  soldier  who  states  it  for  what  it  is  worth.  Of 
this  at  least  I  am  certain,  that  no  outsider  can  have  a 
deeper,  a  more  sincere  admiration  than  I  have  for  their 
institutions,  their  people,  their  great  soldiers  and  sailors, 
as  well  as  for  their  writers  and  men  of  science. 

Had  I  been  a  "  Southerner  "  in  1861  I  would  certainly 
have  thrown  in  my  lot  with  the  Confederacy,  for  I  believed 
that  "  right "  in  the  abstract,  in  the  legal  sense,  was  on  its 
side.     But   had   I   been   a   "  Northerner,"    I   would   have 

143 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

laughed  at  all  notions  of  "  States'  rights."  The  United 
States  would  have  been  for  me  one  Power,  whole  and 
indivisible,  and  I  would  have  fought  to  the  death  sooner 
than  have  seen  that  power  broken  up  upon  any  lawyer's 
plea  regarding  the  interpretation  of  the  words  in  which 
the  "  deed  "  of  Union  had  been  originally  drafted.  Such 
at  the  time  was  my  view  as  an  outsider  of  the  all-absorb- 
ing question  that  was  discussed  in  strong  and  excited 
language,  both  north  and  south  of  the  Potomac,  when 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  President. 

My  own  sympathy  since  boyhood  has  always  been  with 
the  strongly  national  squire,  who,  when  asked  for  an  after- 
dinner  toast,  said :  "  Here's  to  England  (cheers) ;  may  she 
always  be  in  the  right  (still  louder  cheers),  but,  by  heavens, 
gentlemen,  here's  to  her,  whether  she  be  right  or  wrong !  " 
(Deafening  cheers.) 

In  the  great  American  struggle  I  refer  to,  that  old- 
fashioned  squire's  sentiment  regarding  England  repre- 
sented the  feelings  of  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  States 
for  the  cause  each  had  adopted.  Surely  the  true  patriot  of 
all  nations  must  sincerely  respect  such  a  heartfelt  senti- 
ment of  intense  nationality,  for  is  it  not  the  only  sound 
foundation  upon  which  nations  can  continue  to  be  great  ? 
And  may  I  not  assert  with  equal  confidence  that  it  is  because 
that  sentiment  so  deeply  influences  the  hearts  of  the  United 
States  people  that  they  have  become  the  foremost  nation 
in  the  world,  far  greater  than  Washington  and  his  able 
colleagues  could  ever  have  hoped  for  or  even  dreamt  of. 


144 


CHAPTER      XXXVI 

Reorganization  of  the   Canadian   Militia,  1864-5 

'THHE  "  Trent  Affair  "  had  caused  all  Canadians  to  study 
■*-  seriously  how  defenceless  would  be  their  province 
should  we  be  forced  into  war  with  the  United  States.  Hither- 
to the  people  of  Canada  had  been  too  prone  to  rely  upon 
England  for  protection.  Urged,  however,  by  the  Governor- 
General  to  adopt  some  line  of  military  policy  that  would 
at  least  make  those  who  ruled  in  "  the  old  country  "  anxious 
to  help  them  effectively  in  case  of  need,  the  Canadian 
Government  now  set  to  work  upon  the  re-organization  of 
their  local  Militia.  The  large  cities  and  most  of  the  import- 
ant towns  had  already  created  some  tolerably  fair  Volunteer 
battalions,  but  it  was  desirable  to  place  aU  the  local 
forces  upon  some  better  established  military  system,  and, 
above  all  things,  to  model  them  upon  the  lines  of  our 
Regular  Army,  with  which  they  would  have  to  act  in  the 
event  of  war. 

Upon  the  close  of  the  Confederate  war,  the  Canadian 
Government  began  at  last  to  realize  how  unprotected 
was  the  long  straggling  frontier  which  divided  their 
provinces  from  those  of  the  United  States.  They  per- 
ceived how  open  it  was  to  any  filibustering  attempt  on 
the  part  of  the  numerous  Fenians  who  were  then  idle  and 
anxious  for  a  "  light  job." 

VOL.  II.  145  L 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Public  opinion  in  Canada,  excited  on  this  point,  soon 
compelled  the  party  in  power  to  adopt  measures  for  the 
creation  of  an|^efficient  defensive  force.  The  first  step 
towards  the  reorganization  of  the  Canadian  Militia,  was 
to  obtain  the  services  of  a  thoroughly  able  soldier  to  organize 
and  command  it.  His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Cambridge 
wisely  selected  General  Patrick  MacDougall  for  this  duty, 
and  no  better  selection  could  have  been  made.  He  was 
very  able,  highly  educated  as  a  soldier  in  his  profession, 
and  was  gifted  with  the  most  charming,  the  most  fascinating 
manner  towards  all  men — by  no  means  a  poor  recommenda- 
tion for  any  one  who  has  to  get  on  well  with  politicians. 
He  had  also  the  great  advantage  of  knowing  Canada  and 
its  good  people  thoroughly,  from  having  formerly  served 
there  many  years. 

The  task  before  him  was  difficult,  for  some  of  the  Canadian 
Militia  officers,  although  they  had  other  professional  work 
to  attend  to,  believed  they  knew  more  about  soldiers  and 
their  science  than  those  whose  sole  profession  the  Army  had 
always  been.  They  had  some  reason,  however,  for  this 
belief,  as  the  best  of  our  Canadian  officers,  and  those  best 
were  very  good,  had  been  long  accustomed  to  much  folly 
and  many  silly  prejudices  on  the  part  of  our  old-fashioned 
and  prof essionally  ignorant  Army  officers.  Even  up  to  the 
date  I  am  writing  about,  many  of  our  old  captains  and 
colonels  knew  little  of  their  work  beyond  the  childish 
manoeuvres  of  a  barrack-yard  parade  ground.  But  our 
Canadian  comrades  had  not  then  become  aware  of  the  fact 
that,  since  our  war  with  Russia,  a  new  army  school  had 
arisen  amongst  us,  by' whom  the  study  of  their  profession, 
both  as  a  science  and  an  art,  was  recognized  as  all  important. 
[_  No    man    knew    better    than    General    MacDougall    the 

146 


THE    LA    PRAIRIE    CAMP 

difference  there  is  between  the  educated  officer  and  the 
ordinary  amateur  in  uniform,  and  the  best  of  the  Canadian 
Militia  soon  came  to  recognize  their  new  commandant's 
mihtary  worth,  and  the  value  of  the  new  system  he  intro- 
duced. It  was,  however,  very  uphill  work,  for  he  never 
could  induce  Canadian  Ministers  to  supply  him  with  the 
funds  required  to  start  schools  of  instruction  upon  an 
adequate  scale.  There  is  no  idle  or  "  leisured  "  class  in  any 
part  of  Canada.  Every  one  has  to  work  there,  and  it  is  not 
easy  for  the  hard-toiling  man  in  any  office  to  spare  even  a 
few  hours  per  week  for  the  study  and  practice  of  the  military 
arts  and  science.  Colonel  MacDougall  began  the  heavy 
task  before  him  by  the  creation  of  an  efficient  Militia  Staff, 
and  of  military  schools  at  every  station  where  we  had 
regular  troops.  At  these  schools  Militia  officers  were  to  be 
taught,  and  young  Canadian  gentlemen  rendered  fit  for  the 
position  of  officers.  After  these  schools  had  been  a  season 
at  work,  he  collected  those  who  had  qualified  at  them  in  a 
camp  he  formed  at  the  old  disused  barrack  of  La  Prairie, 
which  is  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  near  Montreal. 
He  asked  me  to  be  its  Commandant,  and,  always  anxious 
for  any  interesting  employment,  I  gladly  accepted  the  offer. 
These  cadets  were  formed  into  two  battalions,  one  of  upper, 
the  other  of  lower  Canadians,  and  two  excellent  officers  of 
the  Canadian  militia  were  selected  to  command  them. 

I  found  these  young  gentlemen  delightful  to  deal  with, 
all  being  seriously  anxious  to  learn  a  soldier's  work. 

The  more  drill  they  were  given  the  more  they  enjoyed 
their  camp  life.  I  may  say,  that  it  was  at  the  La  Prairie 
Camp,  nearly  all  the  best  Militia  officers  of  that  generation 
were  drilled  and  given  some  practical  knowledge  of 
military  duties. 

147 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

I  found  they  made  excellent  officers ;  they  were  think- 
ing and  yet  practical  men,  without  any  of  the  pedantry 
which  too  often  clings  to  the  young  officers  of  all  Regular 
Armies.  My  own  experience  of  Canada,  and  of  its  fine 
loyal  manly  people,  has  taught  me  that  England  can 
always  depend  upon  the  Canadian  Militia  to  supply  her 
with  a  first-rate  division  under  Canadian  officers,  who 
are  not  to  be  surpassed  in  military  characteristics  of  a 
high  order  by  any  other  troops.  It  is  much  to  be  re- 
gretted that  the  supply  of  officers  required  for  our 
Royal  Canadian  Regiment  is  not  left  to  the  Governor- 
General  of  Canada,  as  none  but  Canadian  gentlemen  should, 
I  think,  be  appointed  to  it.  But  mihtary  or  colonial 
sentiment  is  not  usually  understood  or  appreciated  by 
our  civilian  War  Ministers. 

One  of  the  ablest,  and  professionally  one  of  the  best 
read  officers  I  ever  knew,  is  Colonel  George  Denison,  of 
Toronto,  who  for  many  years  commanded  the  Governor- 
General  of  Canada's  Bodyguard.  The  descendant  of  many 
generations  of  gallant  soldiers,  who  have,  during  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries,  fought  for  the  British 
Crown  in  Canada,  he  would  have  been  a  military  leader  of 
note  in  any  army  he  joined.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted 
that  he  did  not  adopt  the  Army  as  a  profession.  Had  he 
done  so  he  must  have  risen  to  eminence.  He  gained  the 
prize  offered  by  the  Emperor  of  Russia  for  the  best  essay 
on  cavalry,  which  was  a  great  distinction,  as  it  was  open 
to  the  officers  of  aU  nations.  During  the  annoyance 
caused  to  Canada  by  the  Fenians,  I  came  to  know  him 
well.  With  the  Bodyguard  he  patrolled  the  left  bank 
of  the  Niagara  River  above  the  falls  whilst  the  excite- 
ment  lasted.      They   were   just   the  corps  for  that  work, 

148 


GENERAL  THE  HON.  JAMES  LINDSAY 

and  he  was  just  the  man  to  command  them  effectively. 
I  reahzed  at  the  time  that  no  similar  number  of  regular 
cavalry  could  have  done  that  duty  as  effectively.  But  he 
was  a  man  in  a  thousand,  and  a  born  cavalry  leader. 

The  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  French-speaking  battalion 
was  somewhat  of  a  martinet,  and  an  indefatigable  worker.  He 
was  a  great  talker,  and  many  amusing  anecdotes  were  told  of 
him.  The  instructions  he  gave  were  always  accompanied 
by  a  voluble  commentary  upon  the  points  he  sought  to 
emphasize,  and  many  of  his  remarks  were  very  personal 
to  the  individual  he  selected  for  either  praise  or  blame. 
Under  him  any  similar  number  of  Englishmen  would  have 
mutinied,  but  he  knew  his  men,  and  they  took  his  dicta- 
torial sarcasm  in  the  best  spirit,  and  as  if  it  were  quite  usual 
in  our  Army. 

As  I  stood  on  his  parade  ground  one  morning,  listening  to 
his  teaching,  I  felt  it  difficult  at  times  to  look  serious.  In  the 
middle  of  one  of  his  long  sentences  a  horrible  noise  was 
made  by  a  man  in  the  front  rank  as  he  spat  in  front  of  him. 
My  French-speaking  colonel  rushed  at  him,  and  in  the  most 
angry  tone  exclaimed,  "  C'est  defendu  de  cracher  dans  le 
rangs."  No  man  in  his  battalion  smiled,  for  all  seemed  to 
think  it  a  most  natural  injunction. 

I  liked  all  those  whom  I  met  at  this  camp,  and  thoroughly 
enjoyed  my  life  there.  General  the  Hon.  James  Lindsay — 
a  first-rate  soldier  and  a  most  charming  man — who  was 
then  commanding  our  troops  in  the  Quebec  province, 
helped  me  much,  and  took  a  deep  interest  in  my  work. 
He  marched  the  Montreal  Garrison  of  infantry  and  field 
artillery  to  La  Prairie,  and  with  my  two  battalions  of 
cadets  we  had  an  instructive  field  day,  which  my  embryo 
warriors    thoroughly    enjoyed.     I    refer    thus    to    this    La 

149 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Prairie  Camp,  because  it  was  the  birthplace  of  the  very  fine 
Canadian  MiHtia  force  with  which  I  was  subsequently  inti- 
mately associated,  and  because  it  was,  I  think,  the  first  practi- 
cal effort  made  to  convert  the  excellent  military  material 
Canada  possesses  so  abundantly,  into  useful  soldiers.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  those  trained  at  La  Prairie  subsequently 
accompanied  me  in  the  expedition  I  led  in  1870  from  Lake 
Superior  to  the  Red  River,  and  no  commander  could  wish 
to  have  better  soldiers  than  those  of  the  two  Canadian 
militia  battalions  who  constituted  the  bulk  of  the  brigade 
I  then  had  with  me.  Our  young  officers  of  the  regular 
army,  are  too  prone  to  depend  upon  regulations  which  are 
apt  to  dwarf  their  natural  military  instincts  in  positions 
where  the  Canadian  officer  would  act  according  to  the 
common  sense  that  is  within  him.  For  the  admirable 
results  obtained  at  La  Prairie,  we  were  chiefly  indebted 
to  the  ability  and  exertions  of  Sir  Patrick  MacDougall,  who 
loved  Canada  and  its  people,  and  thoroughly  appreciated 
the  fine  manly  race  of  both  British  and  French  origin  who 
inhabit  its  many  beautiful  provinces.  I  had  a  very  interest- 
ing time  at  this  camp,  and,  taking  it  altogether,  the  experi- 
ment was  a  great  success.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  first  important 
step  taken  by  the  Canadian  Government  in  my  time  to 
improve  the  military  efficiency  of  its  local  forces.  Every 
young  gentleman  who  took  part  in  our  short  period  of  train- 
ing there  returned  home,  not  only  a  better  soldier  him- 
self, but  more  capable  than  he  was  before  of  teaching  others. 
Later  on,  this  was  felt  to  be  a  still  more  pressing  matter 
when  a  large  number  of  driUed  Irish  soldiers  were  suddenly 
thrown  upon  the  world  after  the  disbandment  of  the  huge 
armies  raised  by  the  United  States  for  the  Confederate  War. 
A  considerable  proportion  of  these  idle  Irishmen  then  openly 

150 


THE    AMERICAN    FENIANS 

declared  themselves  as  Fenians,  and  indeed  all  seemed 
to  be  more  partial  to  any  sort  of  filibustering  expedition 
than  to  any  form  of  hard  and  continued  employment  in 
civil  life.  These  disbanded  Irish  soldiers  constituted  an 
element  of  danger  to  Canada  at  a  time  when  the  Fenian 
leaders  generally  were  specially  anxious  to  hurt  England 
through  Canada  in  aU  possible  ways.  How  much  reason 
have  we  in  England  to  deplore  the  folly  which  has  been  so 
remarkable  a  feature  in  the  system  under  which  we  have 
for  the  last  four  centuries  made  blundering  efforts  to  rule 
a  much  cleverer  and  a  far  more  imaginative  race  than 
ourselves  ! 

Most  of  us  in  Canada,  who  were  thinkers  on  such  matters, 
had  long  believed  we  should  have  trouble  with  these  Fenians 
as  soon  as  the  Confederate  War  came  to  an  end,  and  our 
expectations  proved  too  true.  In  many  of  the  United 
States  towns  and  cities  upon  the  Canadian  frontier  the  so- 
called  Irish  patriots  established  clubs,  and  at  many  of  these 
places  the  Fenians  were  organized  on  paper  into  battalions, 
with  the  usual  proportion  of  officers  and  non-commissioned 
officers  in  each.  .   1 


151 


CHAPTER    XXXVII 
Attempted    Fenian   Invasion   of  Canada  in    1866 

DURING  the  winter  of  1865-6  the  managers  of  the 
Fenian  organization  in  the  United  States  had  secretly 
formed  a  scheme  for  the  invasion  of  Canada.  With  bold 
effrontery  they  pretended  to  have  been  assured  of  support 
from  the  Government  at  Washington,  and  this  gave  the 
movement  an  importance  that  secured  it  large  subscrip- 
tions from  the  Irish  Catholics  in  America.  During  the 
Confederate  War  there  had  been  a  considerable  number  of 
Irish  in  the  northern  ranks,  who  being  now  out  of  employ- 
ment were  anxious  for  another  fighting  job.  I  presume 
there  were  some  honest  leaders  in  the  movement  who  believed 
they  would  really  be  countenanced  by  the  United  States 
Government,  whose  members  it  was  said  were  hostile  to 
England  for  the  supposed  countenance  she  had  lent  to  the 
Confederate  cause  in  the  recent  struggle.  But  if  this  were 
so,  they  must  have  been  easily  led  astray  by  scheming 
revolutionists. 

Our  spies,  and  we  had  several  in  the  Fenian  ranks,  reported 
that  the  invasion  would  take  place  in  the  summer  of  1866. 
The  "  Fenian  circles,"  as  their  local  organizations  were 
called,  were  said  to  be  in  great  activity  preparing  for  this 
event.  The  chief  centre  for  their  proposed  invasion  was  the 
large  and  prosperous  city  of  Buffalo  in  the  State  of  New 

152 


THE    FENIANS    IN    PRESCOTT 

York,  and  at  the  head  of  the  Niagara  River.  We  had  long 
knovm  that  another  of  their  active  centres  was  the  city  of 
Ogdensburg,  in  the  same  State,  and  some  sixty  miles  below 
where  the  St,  Lawrence  River  leaves  Lake  Ontario.  It  is 
opposite  the  Canadian  town  of  Prescott,  and  from  its  neigh- 
bourhood came  much  of  our  information  as  to  the  doings  and 
intentions  of  this  conspiracy.  We  accordingly  kept  a  watch 
upon  both  those  cities,  whose  hotels  abounded  in  so-called 
colonels,  captains,  etc.,  the  majority  of  whom  were  in  every 
respect  of  the  commonest  order  of  Irish  mankind.  Of 
course  there  were  traitors  amongst  them,  who  for  payment 
supplied  us  with  information  secretly  as  to  their  doings  and 
intentions. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1866  an  officer  of  the  Canadian 
militia  staff  crossed  in  plain  clothes  to  Ogdensburg,  to  have 
what  is  there  called  "  a  good  look  around."  He  eventually 
dined  at  the  table  d'hote  of  an  inn  that  was  largely  fre- 
quented by  the  Fenian  officers  in  the  town.  He  was  a  well- 
born Irishman  of  exceptionally  taking  and  genial  manners 
who  when  a  captain  had  lost  his  arm  by  a  round  shot  as  he 
stood  beside  me  one  day  in  the  Crimea.  He  was  quickly 
recognized  to  be  a  British  officer  by  the  "  Irish  patriots  " 
present,  and  he  saw  they  were  anxious  to  be  rude.  Later 
on  in  the  day,  when  all  the  diners  had  retired  to  the  hotel 
drawing-room,  one  of  the  most  truculent  of  these  warriors 
swaggered  up  to  my  one-armed  friend  and  said  in  a  loud 
voice  that  was  heard  by  all  present,  "  You  are  a  British 
officer ;  look  well  at  me  for  I  am  a  Fenian  colonel."  My 
friend,  in  the  most  genial  tone  replied,  "  The  devil  you  are  ! 
I  have  never  seen  a  Fenian  before,  and  am  very  glad  to 
have  met  one  at  last.  I  am  an  Irishman,  so  let  us  shake 
hands,  my  dear  sir."     This  was  said  in  no  mocking  voice, 

153 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

and  in  such  a  manner  that  no  one  could  take  offence  at  it, 
but  it  so  completely  turned  the  laugh  against  the  swaggering 
Fenian  that  many  tittered,  and  he  was  shut  up,  said  no 
more,  and  sneaked  away.  ■' 

We  are  told  that  a  soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath,  yet  in 
a  company  of  Irishmen  a  witty  answer,  expressed  in  a 
cordial  genial  tone  and  manner  is  still  more  likely  to  save 
the  position  and  prevent  a  quarrel. 

The  Canadian  Government  became  at  last  so  seriously 
alarmed  at  these  Fenian  proceedings  that  they  called  out 
10,000  of  their  militia,  in  March,  1866.  Much  drill  was 
given,  but  the  Ottawa  Ministers,  so  like  our  own  in  this  re- 
spect, would  make  no  effective  preparations  for  a  campaign — 
that  might  never  come  off — by  the  purchase  of  those  stores 
and  munitions  without  which  not  even  the  smallest  fighting 
body  can  be  suddenly  placed  in  the  field.  The  Canadians 
are  a  splendid  race  of  men  and  they  make  first-rate  soldiers, 
but  officers  accustomed  to  command,  or  who  were  even  in- 
structed in  the  art  of  commanding,  were  then  few.  This 
is  the  weak  side  of  all  militia  forces  that  are  rarely  assem- 
bled for  instruction,  but  it  is  difficult  to  convince  the 
officers  themselves  of  this  fact.  Any  one  can  learn  in  a 
few  weeks  to  shout  out  the  drill-book  words  of  command 
required  for  any  miUtary  movement.  That  parrot-like 
accomplishment  is  easily  learnt,  but  not  so  the  art  of  com- 
manding men,  for  it  is  essentially  an  art,  and  so  high, 
so  peculiar  an  art,  that  many  officers  even  in  aU  regular 
armies  never  master  it.  Good  pleasant  manners,  closely 
allied  to  firmness,  a  genial  disposition,  a  real  sympathy 
for  the  private  soldier,  and  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  are  essential  qualifications  for  the  man  who 
would  command  soldiers  effectively  anywhere.     The  art  is 

154 


THE    FENIAN    MOVEMENT 

bom  in  some,  and  comes  naturally  to  many.  In  peace  or 
in  war  it  is  a  quality  more  necessary  for  the  officer  than  any 
knowledge  he  can  acquire  by  a  study  of  the  drUl-book, 
essential  though  that  knowledge  be. 

I  have  no  intention  of  going  over  the  back  pages  of  history 
to  explain  the  origin  of  the  Fenian  movement  which  even- 
tually led  to  the  childishly  planned  invasion  of  Canada  in 
1866.  But  as  far  as  I  am  able  to  form  an  opinion  from  early 
acquaintance  with  the  Irish  people,  the  great  factor  in  our 
Irish  troubles,  since  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  has  been 
the  difference  of  religion  between  the  Roman  Catholic 
peasantry  and  their  Protestant  landlords.  The  priests 
almost  all  spring  from  the  former,  and  the  professional  men 
from  the  latter  class.  Of  course  there  always  were  a  few 
of  the  Catholic  landowning  gentry,  who  remained  loyal  to 
the  British  connexion,  notwithstanding  our  cruel  laws  which 
at  one  time  debarred  them  from  all  public  employment. 

It  has  been,  I  feel,  this  difference  in  religion  that  has  kept 
the  conquerors  and  the  conquered  so  long  apart  in  Ireland, 
and  prevented  any  general  amalgamation  of  the  two  races. 

There  had  been  a  great  emigration  of  Irish  people  into 
the  United  States  since  the  dreadful  Famine  of  1848.  They 
are  a  prolific  race,  and  have  largely  increased  in  numbers 
there,  but  have  not  as  yet  supplied  the  American  nation 
with  presidents  or  great  admirals  or  generals.  In  a  country 
of  universal  suffrage,  they,  however,  exercise  great  influence, 
for  the  Irish  vote,  always  given  soUd,  is  a  very  important 
element  in  every  presidential  election.  Hence  I  think  the  fact 
that  a  large  proportion  of  those  who  made  this  raid  upon 
Canada  in  1866  firmly  believed  that  the  Washington 
Government  would  give  them  every  countenance,  if  not 
material  support  in  their  proclaimed  -^intention  to  rid  the 

155 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

North  American  continent  of  all  British  rule.  So  much 
was  this  the  case,  that  their  scheme  fell  to  the  ground  as  soon 
as  they  realized  upon  crossing  into  Canada  that  the  United 
States  Government  would  show  them  no  countenance. 
There  were  also  money  troubles  within  the  Fenian  ranks,  as 
most  of  its  agents  were  needy  adventurers.  The  care  of  and 
expenditure  of  the  money  collected  in  the  United  States 
from  poor  Irish  servant  girls  and  other  sympathizers,  soon 
gave  rise  to  difficulties  amongst  the  Fenian  leaders.  A  large 
amount  of  bonds,  made  payable  whenever  the  Fenians  had 
established  their  authority  in  Canada,  had  been  issued  as  a 
means  for  filling  the  coffers,  and  the  distribution  of  the 
plunder  their  sale  afforded  led  to  disputes. 

AU  through  the  latter  half  of  May,  1866,  we  received  intelli- 
gence from  many  quarters  that  the  Fenians  had  made  their 
preparations  for  the  invasion  of  Canada,  and  meant  very 
shortly  to  carry  it  out.  During  the  last  week  of  that  month 
we  received  the  news  that  many  trains  laden  with  Fenians 
had  reached  Buffalo.  But  still  the  Canadian  authorities 
made  no  preparations  to  meet  the  coming  attack.  On  the 
morning  of  June  i,  1866,  however,  all  Canada  was  startled 
by  the  news  that  during  the  preceding  night  1,500  Fenians 
had  crossed  the  Niagara  River  from  Buffalo  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  had  landed  in  Canada  at  Fort  Erie,  the  site 
of  a  ruined  and  long  disused  British  work.  Fort  Erie  is  the 
south-east  corner  of  the  great  right-angled  block  of  territory 
that  constitutes  the  Niagara  Peninsula. 

Our  general  commanding  in  the  province  of  Ontario  was 
useless  for  any  military  purpose.  A  battalion  of  Canadian 
Militia  had,  however,  been  put  under  orders  the  night  of 
May  31  to  go  by  rail  to  Port  Colborne  the  following  morning 
and  had  started  about  daybreak  for  that  town. 

156 


FENIAN    INVASION    OF    NIAGARA 

Buffalo  had  been  cleverly  chosen  by  the  Fenian  leaders 
as  a  point  of  concentration  for  their  invading  force.  Being 
a  large  city,  the  arrival  of  from  1,500  to  2,000  unarmed  men 
would  not  attract  much  attention,  and  the  place  itself  had 
long  swarmed  with  Irish  sympathizers. 

Although  the  Government  of  Ottawa  would  do  nothing 
beforehand  to  prepare  for  such  a  contingency,  they  now 
acted  promptly.  The  greater  part  of  the  Canadian  Volunteer 
Militia  in  Upper  Canada  were  at  once  called  out,  and  Colonel 
Peacocke,  of  the  Bedfordshire  Regiment,  an  able  and  well 
instructed  officer,  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Niagara 
Peninsula. 

That  Peninsula  is  one  of  the  most  fertile,  most  highly 
cultivated  and  most  prosperous  parts  of  Canada.  It  is  a 
rectangular  block  of  about  forty-five  miles  long  from  east  to 
west,  and  of  about  thirty  miles  in  depth.  The  northern  side 
is  bounded  by  Lake  Ontario,  the  southern  by  Lake  Erie, 
the  eastern  by  the  Niagara  River,  whilst  the  8oth  parallel  of 
longitude  may  be  taken  as  its  western  boundary  from  Burl- 
ington Bay  on  the  north  to  Stony  Creek  on  the  south.  A 
suspension  bridge  over  the  Niagara  River  near  the  Great 
Falls,  united  Canada  with  the  State  of  New  York.  To  com- 
plete our  line  of  inland  navigation  between  Quebec  and  the 
Great  Upper  Lakes,  we  had  many  years  before  constructed 
the  WeUand  Canal  through  this  Niagara  Peninsula.  It 
begins  at  Port  Colborne,  on  Lake  Erie,  about  sixteen  miles 
west  of  Fort  Erie,  and  falls  into  Lake  Ontario  at  Port  Dal- 
housie,  which  is  about  eleven  miles  south-west  of  where  the 
Niagara  River  also  falls  into  that  lake. 

Colonel  Peacocke  at  first  established  his  Headquarters  at 
St.  Catherine's,  a  place  well  chosen  for  the  purpose.  Pushing 
on  to  the  suspension  bridge  over  the  Niagara  River  at  Clifton, 

157 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

he  found  no  enemy  there,  and  being  naturally  anxious  to 
hold  Chippewa,  a  point  of  strategic  importance,  he  reached 
that  place  on  the  night  of  June  i.  Unfortunately  he  did  not 
move  the  following  morning,  June  2,  until  7  a.m.,  by  which 
hour  he  might  have  been  at  New  Germany,  only  six  miles 
from  Chippewa  by  the  direct  road.  It  was  an  extremely 
hot  day,  and  as  he  had  not  left  his  knapsacks  behind,  the 
men  suffered  much  in  consequence  during  the  march.  Why 
he  did  not  move  by  rail  to  Black  Creek  I  know  not,  but  it  is 
easy  to  be  wise  after  the  event.  His  locally  obtained  guides 
were  either  fools  by  nature  or  through  cowardice,  for  they 
took  his  column  a  great  round  by  the  river  road  to  Black 
Creek  and  thence  to  New  Germany.  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
describe  this  insignificant  attempt  on  the  part  of  some  1,500 
indifferently  organized  Irish  Americans  to  invade  Canada. 
It  was  throughout  an  extremely  badly  managed  affair  on 
both  sides.  Had  our  general  at  Toronto  been  a  man  of  any 
energy,  he  would  have  gone  at  once  himself  to  Chippewa 
with  all  available  troops,  and  have  marched  thence  direct 
upon  the  rabble  party  that  had  landed  at  Fort  Erie.  Had 
he  done  so,  he  might  easily  have  killed  a  large  number  of 
those  poor  misguided  Irishmen  who  had  been  induced  to 
take  part  in  this  idiotic  attempt  at  invasion.  So  idiotic 
was  it  as  a  military  enterprise  that  I  have  always  thought 
it  must  have  been  undertaken  in  order  to  fill  the  pockets  of 
the  patriot  leaders. 

A  Militia  colonel  and  a  captain  of  the  Royal  Engineers, 
neither  being  either  wise  or  experienced  soldiers,  had  been 
sent  to  Port  Colborne,  the  southern  entrance  to  the  Welland 
Canal,  at  the  same  time  that  Colonel  Peacocke  had  been  sent 
to  Chippewa.  Ordered  to  proceed  thence  in  a  tug,  and  with 
some  Militia  as  a  guard  on  board,  for  the  purpose  of  recon- 

158 


THE    CANADIAN    MILITIA 

noitring  Fort  Erie  and  of  patrolling  the  Niagara  River  as 
far  north  as  Navy  Island,  they  took  it  upon  themselves  to 
land  their  men  at  Fort  Erie  instead.  There  they  were 
attacked  by  the  Fenians  and  their  detachment  was  mostly 
either  killed,  wounded  or  captured.  The  Militia  colonel 
in  command  escaped  in  borrowed  civilian's  clothes  ;  having 
shaved  his  beard  and  whiskers  he  temporarily  found  refuge 
in  a  rick  of  hay.  Another  colonel  of  Militia  when  on  the 
march  in  command  of  his  battalion,  came  suddenly  upon 
the  enemy  at  a  cross  roads  called  Ridgeway.  Thus  surprised, 
he  and  his  battalion,  after  some  loss  on  both  sides,  were  soon 
in  full  retreat  at  no  slow  pace.  In  the  formation  he  had 
advanced  in,  he  was  bound  to  be  surprised,  and  when  some 
nervous  men,  upon  seeing  a  few  Fenian  ofiicers  on  horse- 
back in  the  distance,  cried  out  in  panic,  "  Cavalry,"  the 
wildest  confusion  ensued.  Had  the  Fenians  been  worth 
anything  as  soldiers  few  of  their  opponents  would  have 
supped  that  night  in  their  own  bivouac.  It  was  a  short 
skirmish  between  two  smaU  parties  of  undisciplined,  un- 
trained men,  and  it  was,  I  should  imagine,  a  toss  up  which 
side  disbanded  first.  Speaking  from  my  own  experience  of 
the  Canadian  Militia  I  have  every  reason  to  think  most 
highly  of,  and  to  believe  thoroughly  in  them  when  they  are 
properly  handled.  Had  they  been  so  handled  in  their 
skirmishes  during  this  Fenian  raid,  they  would,  I  feel  sure, 
have  bagged  every  Irish  American  who  had  then  landed  at 
Fort  Erie.  There  would  have  been  no  stampede  that  day 
on  the  Ridge  Road  had  the  Militia  engaged  been  commanded 
by  a  Militia  officer  like  Colonel  George  Denison,  of  the 
Canadian  Bodyguard. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  this  Fenian  raid  reached  Montreal, 
General  Sir  John  Michael,  then  commanding  the  forces  in 

159 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Canada,  sent  me  off  in  hot  haste  to  the  seat  of  this  trouble. 
Major-General  Napier,  who  commanded  in  the  province  of 
Ontario,  was  not  a  shining  hght,  and  I  was  told  to  "  coach  " 
him  and  prevent  him  from  doing  anything  very  foolish. 
I  knew  General    Napier    personally  very  well,  and  upon 
reaching  Toronto  the  following  morning  he  at  once  adopted 
all  the  measures  I  recommended.     Indeed,  he  seemed  de- 
lighted to  have  someone  by  him  whose  advice  he  could 
follow.     In  private  life  a  charming  man,  he  was  quite  useless 
at  aU  times  as  a  commander.     And  yet  he  was  a  fair  speci- 
men of  the  general  then  usually  selected  for  military  com- 
mands.    Before  my  arrival  he  had  ordered  a  Battery  of 
Field  Artillery,  and  what  odds  and  ends  could  be  scraped 
together  in  Toronto  and  its  neighbourhood,  to  leave  that 
evening  for  the  Niagara  frontier  under  my  esteemed  Crimean 
friend,  Colonel,   now   General   R.   W.   Lowry,   C.B.,    then 
commanding  the   ist  Battalion  of  the  North  Lancashire 
Regiment.     A  gallant  Irishman,  belonging  to  an  old  and 
distinguished  family  of  fighting  men,  it  was  now  his  business 
to  snuff  out  the  silly  efforts  made  by  an  Irish-American 
party  to  disturb  our  rule  in  Canada.     His  battalion  had 
already  gone  to  the  front,  where  he  was  to  be  joined  by 
detachments  of  the  Bedfordshire  Regiment  and  of  the  Royal 
Rifles.     Upon  reaching  Clifton  at  8  p.m.  that  evening  by 
rail,  the  railway  authorities  declined  to  send  us  any  further 
until  daylight  the  following  morning,  as  they  thought  the 
bridges  and  culverts  on   the  line  had  probably  been  de- 
stroyed.    At  midnight  we  were  joined  by  a  battalion   of 
volunteers. 

We  started  from  Clifton  by  rail  the  following  morning, 
June  3,  1866,  at  3.30  a.m.,  for  Black  Creek,  on  the  Niagara 
River,  a  distance  of  only  ten  miles.     We  only  travelled  at 

160 


A   DRUNKEN    FEMALE    FENIAN 

about  four  or  five  miles  an  hour,  so  as  to  be  able  to  pull  up 
very  quickly  should  the  line  be  cut  or  otherwise  obstructed. 
We  were  detained  there  a  couple  of  hours  until  the  railway 
authorities  had  examined  the  line  ahead,  and  did  not  get 
away  from  it  until  7  a.m.,  when  we  made  for  Frenchman's 
Creek,  six  miles  further  on.  We  detrained  at  Frenchman's 
Creek,  as  Colonel  Lowry  intended  to  march  thence  upon 
Fort  Erie,  which  was  close  by,  and  engage  our  Fenian  enemy 
should  he  be  there  still.  I  soon  had  my  horse  out  of  its  box 
and  rode  forward  to  reconnoitre  towards  Fort  Erie.  Upon 
reaching  it,  I  was  astonished  to  see  a  United  States  gunboat 
anchored  in  midstream  with  a  huge  barge  astern  of  her  that 
was  crowded  with  Fenians,  as  we  afterwards  ascertained  to 
the  number  of  about  six  or  seven  hundred.  They  had 
evidently  bivouacked  on  the  river's  bank  before  embarking 
in  the  barge,  for  all  around  the  ground  was  filthy  and  their 
surgeons  had  evidently  been  at  work  patching  up  some  of 
their  wounded.  The  first  object  that  attracted  my  attention 
was  a  drunken  Irishwoman,  who,  apparently  as  a  defiance 
to  me,  the  English  ofiicer  before  her,  flourished  over  her 
head  an  amputated  leg,  which  she  had  grasped  round  the 
ankle,  crying  out  to  me  as  she  did  so,  "  God  save  ould  Ire- 
land." The  position  was  disgusting,  but  yet  as  comical  as 
that  of  the  drunken  old  lady,  who,  when  being  taken  to  the 
Police  Office  in  Dublin,  on  March  17,  kept  howling  out, 
"  Oh  !  blessed  and  holy  St.  Patrick,  see  what  I'm  suffering 
for  you  this  night  "  ! 

At  Fort  Erie  we  found  a  few  Fenian  wounded  and  one  of 
their  dead,  also  some  wounded  Canadian  Volunteers.  In 
the  afternoon  Colonel  Lowry  and  I  went  on  board  the  U.S. 
gunboat,  Michigan,  which  had  the  barge-fuU  of  Fenians 
fastened  on  astern.    There  we  found  General  Barry,  of  the 

VOL.  II.  161  M 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

United  States  Army,  who  commanded  at  Buffalo.  He  and 
the  naval  officer  commanding  the  gunboat  were  both  well 
bred  gentlemen  and  received  us  kindly.  So  ended  this  fiasco 
of  a  Fenian  invasion.  Of  course  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment could  have  prevented  it  from  ever  taking  place.  But 
in  a  country  whose  supreme  ruler  and  all  his  subordinate 
governors  are  elected  by  the  people  every  few  years,  it  is  not 
always  practically  possible  for  them  to  adopt  strong  measures 
for  the  suppression  of  even  such  a  nuisance  as  a  Fenian  raid. 
It  was  our  policy  throughout  this  business  carefully  to  avoid 
taking  any  steps  which  the  Fenians  could  preach  up  in  their 
newspapers  as  a  violation  of  American  territory  or  as  an 
injury  done  by  us  to  some  law-abiding  citizen  of  the  great 
Republic. 

Late  in  the  summer  of  this  year,  1866, the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment deemed  it  advisable  to  form  a  camp  in  the  Niagara 
Peninsula.  The  Fenians  in  the  United  States  still  continued 
to  talk  loudly  of  invading  Ontario,  and  if  they  could  effect 
no  permanent  lodgment  there,  they  hoped  at  least  to  destroy 
the  WeUand  Canal.  Even  supposing  no  such  invasion  had 
to  be  guarded  against,  it  was  felt  that  a  short  period  in  camp 
would  afford  the  Ontario  Militia  an  opportunity  of  learning 
the  practical  duties  of  soldiers  in  the  field  to  an  extent  they 
could  not  hope  for  at  their  own  homes.  Thorold,  a  village 
on  the  WeUand  Canal  was  selected  as  the  site  for  this  camp, 
and  I  was  selected  to  be  its  Commandant.  It  was  a  well 
chosen  position  on  account  of  its  railroad  facilities.  A 
battalion  of  the  Bedfordshire  Regiment  and  a  Field  Battery 
of  Royal  Artillery  were  to  be  at  Thorold  as  long  as  the  Camp 
remained  there,  for  the  purpose  of  affording  instruction  to 
the  Militia  Force  employed.  The  Militia  were  to  come  in 
batches  of  four  or  five  battalions  at  a  time  for  a  period  of  ten 

162 


THOROLD    CAMP 

days'  instruction.  It  was  hoped  in  this  way,  at  a  small 
expense  and  without  interfering  seriously  with  the  usual 
occupations  of  the  men,  to  afford  much  useful  and  practical 
instruction  to  all  ranks.  I  found  them  delightful  men  to 
deal  with  ;  all  were  most  anxious  to  learn,  and  they  were 
apt  scholars. 

The  Governor-General's  bodyguard,  under  Colonel  George 
Denison,  was  placed  under  my  orders  as  long  as  the  camp 
lasted,  to  watch  the  Niagara  frontier  from  Chippewa  to  Fort 
Erie  and  westward  from  the  latter  point  as  far  as  Ridgeway. 
Between  these  two  extreme  points  was  about  thirty-two 
miles,  a  long  distance  to  be  well  and  closely  watched  day 
and  night  by  a  troop  of  three  officers  and  fifty-five  mounted 
men.  But  what  could  be  done  with  such  a  handful  of  men 
was  well  done  by  them  and  by  their  excellent  outpost 
commander. 

This  camp  attracted  large  numbers  of  sightseers  from 
both  Canada  and  the  United  States.  The  Fenians  across  the 
border  still  continued  to  talk  loudly  of  annexing  Canada,  and 
letters  appeared  in  the  United  States  newspapers  in  which 
Irish  conspirators  intimated  their  intention  to  try  once  more 
an  invasion  of  the  Niagara  Peninsula  and  the  destruction  of 
the  Welland  Canal.  A  considerable  number  of  Ontario 
Militia  battalions  attended  this  camp,  and  I  had  a  renewed 
opportunity  of  being  brought  into  close  relationship  with 
many  of  the  best  of  the  Canadian  officers  at  that  period. 
All  stout,  loyal-hearted  men,  to  be  depended  upon  in  any 
hour  of  national  trouble,  and  all  anxious  to  learn  a  soldier's 
trade  ;  no  finer  material  for  an  army  could  be  found  in  any 
country,  and  they  were  always  the  nicest  and  the  best  of 
friends  and  comrades.  The  district  we  were  encamped  in 
is  rich  in  apple  and  peach  orchards.     These  are  not  only 

163 


THE    STORY   OF   A   SOLDIER'S   LIFE 

beautiful,  but  very  valuable  also  from  the  great  quantity  of 
excellent  fruit  they  produce.  I  had  a  very  happy  time 
there,  and  was  visited  by  many  old  friends  and  made 
several  new  ones. 


164 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII 
The    Red  River  Expedition   of   1870 

THE  year  1870  stands  out  as~a  striking  epoch  in  the 
history  of  modern  Europe.  During  its  early  months 
two  great  mihtary  nations  were  eagerly  engaged  in  making 
ready  for  a  struggle  that  was  to  end  in  once  more  driving 
the  representative  of  the  Bonaparte  family  from  the  throne 
of  France.  The  whole  civilized  world  was  profoundly 
anxious  at  the  moment,  for  no  nation  could  foretell  the  limits 
within  which  it  might  be  possible  to  restrict  military  opera- 
tions. All  the  great  continental  powers  were  armed  to  the 
teeth,  and  in  such  a  condition  of  affairs  it  was  difficult  to 
foresee  what  any  day  might  bring  forth,  or  what  might  be 
the  unpleasant  upheavals  which  the  general  whirligig  of 
fortune  might  have  in  store  for  mankind. 

Whilst  aU  was  thus  in  ferment  upon  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  a  small  military  expedition  of  an  unusual  charac- 
ter was  being  organized  in  Canada  on  the  western  shores  of 
Lake  Superior.  Its  destination  was  Fort  Garry,  the  chief 
post  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  in  the  great  province  now 
known  as  Winnipeg,  but  then  generally  spoken  of  as  Prince 
Rupert's  Land.  It  had  been  named  after  the  gallant  nephew 
of  Charles  I,  who  had  made  himself  famous  by  land  and  sea 
in  doing  battle  for  the  Crown  more  than  two  centuries  before. 

To  describe  the  circumstances  that  rendered  this  expedi- 
tion necessary  would  lead  me  far  beyond  this  story  of  my 

165 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

own  doings  into  a  discussion  on  Canadian  politics.  Suffice  it 
to  say,  that  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  claimed  the  exclusive 
right  to  govern  all  the  British  territories  whose  waters 
drained  into  the  seas  from  which  their  trading  title  had  its 
origin.  These  territories  were  little  known,  and  the  Company 
had  always  seemed  anxious  to  avoid  discussing  their  geo- 
graphical boundaries.  They  desired  to  maintain  the  exclu- 
sive right  to  trade  with  all  the  Indians  who  inhabited  that 
part  of  North  America,  and  they  never  encouraged  travellers 
or  explorers  in  the  undefined  provinces  which  they  claimed 
as  their  chartered  and  legal  property.  It  would  indeed  have 
been  commercially  suicidal  on  the  part  of  that  Company  to 
have  helped  forward  in  any  way  the  colonization  of  their 
territory,  as,  amongst  other  reasons,  the  spread  of  civiliza- 
tion meant  the  ultimate  extinction  of  the  fur-bearing 
animals  that  supply  the  staple  article  which  the  Indians 
barter  with  them. 

When  our  North  American  Colonies  were  brought  together 
to  form  the  present  Dominion  of  Canada,  their  united  im- 
portance was  quickly  recognized.  The  Dominion  Govern- 
ment was  anxious  to  put  an  end  to  this  ill-defined  and  dis- 
puted claim  to  ownership  on  the  part  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company.  Upon  aU  sides  it  was  realized  that  the  days  for 
such  monopolies  were  past,  and  after  lengthened  negotiations 
it  was  decided  that  Canada  should  pay  the  Company  £300,000 
for  all  its  supposed  sovereign  rights  over  the  territory  in 
question. 

But  this  arrangement,  which  would  open  the  country  to 
colonization,  did  not  find  favour  with  the  clerical  party 
in  Canada.  Priests  from  the  French-speaking  province  of 
Quebec,  and  Jesuit  missionaries  from  France,  had  been  long 
established   in   the  western   prairies   of  the   Hudson   Bay 

166 


THE    HUDSON    BAY    COMPANY 

Company.  They  had  acquired  influence  and  power  amongst 
the  Indians,  of  whom  many  had  joined  a  religious  community 
whose  rites,  mysteries,  ornaments  and  striking  ceremonies 
appealed  to  their  simple  yet  superstitious  minds. 

The  English  and  the  Scotch  Churches  had  also  representa- 
tives there,  but  their  cold  formalities  and  reasoned  notions 
of  God  did  not  take  root  in  the  uneducated  Indian's  heart. 
The  white  men  Uving  in  this  north-western  region  were 
almost  equally  divided  between  the  Protestant  and  the 
Catholic  Churches.  The  former,  however,  were  divided 
into  many  phases  of  Church  government,  and  seldom,  if 
ever,  worked  together.  A  large  proportion  of  the  Company's 
servants  were  Scotch  Presbyterians,  and  a  first-rate  body 
of  men  they  were.  On  the  other  hand,  the  French-speaking 
inhabitants  were  all  of  one  religion,  and  ruled  over  by  a 
clever,  cunning,  unscrupulous  bishop.  He  was  strongly 
opposed  to  this  transfer  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company's 
sovereign  rights  to  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  The  Company 
had  never  taken  any  side  in  questions  of  religion,  but, 
finding  this  wily  French  bishop  a  power  in  the  land,  they 
had  used  him  to  keep  the  country  quiet  and  free  from 
intruders.  There  were  consequently  two  forces,  both — 
though  with  different  objects — working  to  keep  this  Red 
River  Company  closed  to  immigration,  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  and  the  French  Canadian  priesthood.  The  small 
colony  of  Scotchmen  who  had  been  settled  there  by  Lord 
Selkirk  in  1812  had  already  been  practically  absorbed  into 
the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  only  a  few  families 
remaining  permanently  established  upon  the  fertile  lands 
along  the  banks  of  the  Red  River.  Of  these  two  forces 
the  first  object  of  the  former  was  a  good  annual  dividend  : 
of  the  latter,   the  permanence  of  their  own  position   as 

167 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

spiritual  and  secular  leaders,  and  the  strict  reservation  of 
the  Red  River  country  for  settlers  coming  from  Lower 
Canada  only.  They  dreamt  of  building  up  in  that  far  off 
north-western  land  another  French  province  where  the 
language,  laws,  and,  above  all  things,  the  religion  of  Quebec 
might  be  perpetuated.  It  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  all 
who  had  inherited  French  names  to  see  Canada,  a  country 
originally  civilized  by  France,  becoming  year  by  year  more 
and  more  English  in  its  ways,  thoughts  and  ambitions. 
All  French  Canadians  saw  with  envy  and  dread  the  steadily 
increasing  power  and  position  of  western  Canada — now  the 
great  province  of  Ontario.  But  if  they  could  create  a  new 
French-speaking  country  westward  of  the  great  lakes, 
they  believed  it  would,  in  the  end,  become  a  counterpoise 
to  the  growing  preponderance  of  British  Ontario.  This 
feeling  had  given  birth  to  the  strong  tie  then  existing  between 
the  French-Canadian  wire-puUers  at  Ottawa  and  the  French- 
Canadian  priests  who  had  migrated  to  the  Red  River  Settle- 
ment. All  this  plot,  however,  fell  to  pieces,  like  a  castle  of 
cards,  the  day  I  hoisted  the  Union  Jack  over  Fort  Garry. 

But  the  English  in  Ontario  were  not  blind  to  these  French- 
Canadian  aims.  A  few  of  them  had  already  made  homes 
for  themselves  in  that  prairie  country,  and  by  degrees  had 
formed  themselves  into  a  British-Canadian  party  there. 
Those  two  opposing  sections  were  respectively  supported 
by  the  Press  of  Ontario  and  of  Quebec,  and  by  members  of 
Parliament  who  represented  constituencies  in  those  two 
provinces,  whilst  the  Roman  priesthood  did  all  in  their 
power  to  give  a  religious  aspect  to  the  dispute. 

The  Government  of  Ottawa  has  always  a  difficult  card  to 
play  between  those  two  factions.  Pressure  was,  however, 
put  upon  the  Prime  Minister  by  the  people  of  Ontario,  and 

1 68 


LOUIS    RIEL 

the  result  was  the  despatch  to  the  Red  River  district  of  some 
surveyors  with  orders  to  divide  the  still  unallotted  lands 
into  townships  with  a  view  to  emigration.  The  off-hand 
manners  of  these  Enghsh-speaking  surveyors  did  not  find 
favour  with  the  French  Canadians  in  that  distant  settlement. 
At  work  throughout  all  the  autumn  of  1869,  these  surveyors 
not  only  offended  but  frightened  the  French-speaking 
occupants  by  running  chain-lines  across  their  farms  without 
being  able  to  explain  to  them,  in  the  only  tongue  they  spoke, 
their  reasons  for  doing  so.  The  ignorant  French  "  habitant  " 
very  naturally  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  some 
plot  on  foot  to  rob  him  of  the  land  he  occupied  and  had  parti- 
ally cultivated,  but  for  which  he  could  show  no  written  title. 
In  every  community  there  is  usually  a  restless  and  more 
or  less  idle  party,  and  in  1869  the  Red  River  Settlement 
was  no  exception  to  this  rule.  Encouraged  by  the  Catholic 
priesthood  of  the  locahty,  these  discontented  settlers  went 
amongst  the  French-speaking  farmers,  and  persuaded  them 
that  the  surveyors  had  come  to  apportion  their  lands  into 
lots  for  English-speaking  emigrants  from  Ontario.  They 
even  openly  preached  resistance  to  these  surveyors  in  defence 
of  their  rights,  their  homes,  and  their  religion. 

The  foremost  man  amongst  these  noisy  idlers  was  Louis 
Riel,  a  pure  French  Canadian,  though  generally  referred  to 
as  a  half-breed.  He  had,  however,  many  half-breed  relations, 
and  wished  for  political  purposes  to  be  considered  one  him- 
self. He  was  naturally  clever,  had  been  educated  in  a 
Canadian  Roman  Catholic  school,  and  at  one  time  seems 
to  have  had  thoughts  of  becoming  a  priest.  This  calling  did 
not,  however,  accord  with  the  aims  of  so  restless  a  dispo- 
sition. Eventually  he  became  a  clerk  in  a  United  States 
shop,  from  which,  after  a  few  years'  work,  he  was  dismissed 

169 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

for  dishonesty.  Whilst  in  the  United  States  he  learnt  to 
speak  English  intelligibly.  There  also  he  conceived  the  idea, 
that  in  the  ignorant  community  of  Red  River  half-breeds 
his  superior  ability  and  education  ought  to  secure  him  an 
easy  mode  of  livelihood.  In  all  countries  the  occupation  of 
demagogue  has  much  to  tempt  the  idle  fellow  of  sharp 
wits.  Those  who  knew  him  best  told  me  that  physically  he 
was  by  no  means  brave  ;  his  actions,  however,  proved  he 
was  a  man  of  determination.  He  spoke  well  and  fluently,  and 
thus  obtained  considerable  influence  amongst  the  numerous 
and  ignorant  half-breeds  in  his  far  distant  native  country. 

He  soon  gathered  round  him  a  small  party  of  idle  feUows 
like  himself,  but  their  difficulty  was  to  support  themselves. 
None  of  them  had  any  money,  and  until  they  took  possession 
of  Fort  Garry  and  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  stores  it  con- 
tained, they  were  so  badly  off  that  Riel  had  to  sell  the 
only  cow  possessed  by  his  mother.  She,  poor  woman,  had 
lived  always  in  abject  poverty,  and  her  son  had  not  been 
able  to  help  her  much. 

To  cause  their  importance  to  be  generally  recognized  on  the 
Red  River,  Riel  and  his  followers  found  it  necessary  to  com- 
mit some  overt  act  of  rebellion.  They  began  in  October,  1869, 
by  warning  a  surveying  party  to  quit  the  district  where  they 
were  at  work.  Meetings  of  the  French  Canadian  settlers 
were  at  once  called  by  these  fomenters  of  rebelhon,  at  which 
Riel  and  his  friends  made  inflammatory  speeches  and  called 
upon  the  people  to  resist.  "  Why  and  by  what  right  did  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  seU  them  and  their  lands  to  the 
Canadian  Government  for  £300,000  ?  Why  should  not  that 
money,  or  at  least  a  large  portion  of  it,  go  to  them,  the 
owners  of  the  farms,  instead  ?  "  The  whole  district  was 
aflame,  and  the  priests  who  had  previously  kept  in  the  back- 

170 


OUR    CANADIAN    MINISTERS 

ground,  now  openly  preached  from  their  altars  resistance 
to  the  Canadian  Government. 

A  little  judicious  management  on  the  part  of  the  Ottawa 
Ministry  might  at  first  have  settled  matters  amicably  and 
have  thwarted  the  clerical  party,  who  from  the  beginning 
had  fomented  this  rebellion.  An  authoritative  and  official 
statement  that  all  rights  of  property  would  be  absolutely 
respected  :  that  all  bond  fide  occupiers  of  land  should  retain 
it  rent-free,  and  be  given  a  legal  title  to  it ;  that  all  forms 
of  religion  would  be  respected,  and  all  classes  allowed  to 
worship  God  as  they  pleased,  would  have  been  ample  for 
the  purpose. 

But  the  Canadian  Cabinet  was  then  unfortunate,  for  the 
only  far-seeing  statesman  in  it,  the  Prime  Minister,  Sir 
John  R.  Macdonald,  was  seriously  ill.  Hence  the  manage- 
ment of  this  Red  River  Rebellion  devolved  upon  Sir  George 
Cartier,  the  leader  of  the  Quebec  Conservative  party.  I 
knew  both  these  men,  and  I  was  well  aware  of  how  difficult 
was  the  game  they  had  to  play.  The  latter  was  a  clever 
and  thoroughly  honest  French  Canadian  of  engaging  man- 
ners, and  a  general  favourite  in  all  classes  of  society.  In 
his  youth  he  had  himself  trifled  with  rebellion,  but  had  since 
then  become  a  most  loyal  subject.  He  had  great  influence 
amongst  his  own  people,  whom  he  thoroughly  understood. 
But,  to  be  their  leader,  he  had  to  bow  down  before  their 
bigoted  and  ignorant  priesthood,  for  whom  in  his  heart  he 
had  little  love  and  no  respect.  He  dared  not,  however, 
run  counter  to  their  narrow,  clerical  views  and  aspirations, 
so  his  task  was  by  no  means  an  easy  one,  even  for  so  practised 
a  politician.  A  poor  man,  he  was  himself  above  suspicion 
in  all  money  matters,  but  to  maintain  his  position  as  a 
leader  he  had  at  times  to  resort  to  gross  jobbery. 

171 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

The  Bill  he  brought  into  the  Ottawa  Parliament  practi- 
cally conceded  to  the  French  Canadian  settlers  on  the  Red 
River  all  they  could  have  reasonably  wished  for.  It  passed 
with  but  little  opposition,  though  condemned  as  an  out- 
rageous concession  to  this  half-breed  rebellion  by  aU  the 
English  newspapers  of  Ontario.  Not  many  years  before, 
when  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  officials  in  the  Red  River 
territory  had  given  offence  by  some  action  taken  to  enforce 
the  law,  four  men  had  banded  together  and  proclaimed  a 
repubhc.  One  was  proclaimed  president,  and  two  of  the 
others  were  elected  his  ministers.  For  some  cause  unknown 
to  me,  the  fourth  had  become  objectionable  to  his  three 
friends,  who,  wishing  to  get  rid  of  him,  tried  and  condemned 
him  to  death  as  a  "  conspirator."  But  he  constituted  in  his 
own  person  the  whole  of  the  population — not  in  office — who 
recognized  the  three  others  as  the  rulers  of  their  state.  There 
was  consequently  no  one  belonging  to  it  who  could  carry 
out  the  sentence,  and  the  Repubhc,  thus  unable  to  enforce 
its  decrees,  fell  to  pieces.  Riel  seemed  to  think  it  necessary 
that  he  too  should  in  like  manner  adopt  some  vigorous  policy 
that  would  impress  the  community  over  which  he  had  pro- 
claimed himself  president  with  a  due  sense  of  his  power  and 
of  his  determination  to  exert  it  against  everyone  who  might 
dare  to  question  it.  He  accordingly  imprisoned  and  put  in 
irons  all  the  Ontario  surveying  party,  selecting  one  of  them, 
a  Mr.  Scott,  for  trial,  who  had  made  himself  personally 
objectionable  by  denouncing  him  and  his  gang  as  rebels 
against  the  Queen's  authority.  A  frivolous  charge  of 
breach  of  parole — which  was  unfounded — was  brought 
against  him,  and  he  was  arraigned  before  a  mock  Court- 
Martial  of  half-breeds.  The  proceedings  were  carried 
on  in  French,  which  Mr.  Scott  could  not  speak.     He  was 

172 


SCOTT   MURDERED    BY    RIEL'S    ORDER 

condemned  to  be  shot,  and  in  a  few  hours  afterwards  the 
sentence  was  carried  out  by  some  drunken  half-breeds, 
who,  I  was  told,  had  been  addressed  by  a  French-speaking 
priest  on  the  spot  and  assured  they  were  about  to  per- 
form a  righteous  act. 

The  report  of  the  rifles  by  which  this  murder  was  perpe- 
trated was  the  death  knell  of  the  ridiculous  little  republic 
the  French  party  had  set  up  at  Fort  Garry.  Throughout  the 
whole  of  Canada,  wherever  the  English  language  was  spoken, 
there  arose  a  cry  of  execration  and  a  demand  for  the  execution 
of  the  murderers. 

The  Ottawa  Government  had  selected  a  Mr.  WiUiam 
McDougall  from  amongst  their  own  number  to  be  the  Gover- 
nor of  their  newly-acquired  Province  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Winnipeg.  The  choice  was  not  a  happy  one,  and  was 
apparently  made  solely  in  the  interests  of  party.  He  was  a 
cold-blooded  man,  destitute  of  geniality  and  of  sympathy 
in  dealing  with  men. 

He  started  for  Fort  Garry  by  the  United  States  route 
which  takes  the  traveller  into  British  territory  at  the  little 
village  of  Pembina,  close  to  the  49th  degree  of  north  latitude. 
There  he  was  stopped  by  a  party  of  half-breeds  sent  by  Riel 
to  warn  him  not  to  enter  the  Red  River  territory,  over  which 
he,  Riel,  declared  himself  to  be  president.  Mr.  McDougall 
consequently  never  reached  his  destination  nor  attempted 
to  assume  the  duties  of  the  office  to  which  he  had  been 
appointed. 

The  Ottawa  Government  was  unable  to  withstand  the 
loud,  the  angry  demands  for  the  despatch  of  a  military 
expedition  to  suppress  the  rebellion  in  the  Red  River 
Settlement.  The  English-speaking  people  of  Canada  were 
so  determined  to  have  it  put  down,  that  had  the  Government 

173 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

refused  to  comply,  the  men  of  Ontario  would  have  taken 
the  matter  into  their  own  hands  and  have  settled  it  them- 
selves. It  was  consequently  decided  to  send  a  Brigade  of 
troops  to  Fort  Garry  through  Canadian  territory  as  soon  as 
the  navigation  on  the  Upper  Lakes  opened  and  the  ice  had 
disappeared  from  those  northern  regions.  The  Home 
Government  agreed  to  co-operate  by  furnishing  one  battalion 
and  some  Royal  Artillery  and  Royal  Engineer  detachments, 
the  remaining  two  battalions  to  be  provided  from  the  excel- 
lent militia  of  Canada,  one  from  Ontario,  the  other  from 
the  province  of  Quebec. 

I  was  at  the  time  Quartermaster-General  in  Canada, 
and  was  selected  for  the  command  of  this  expedition.  I 
had  come  to  know  and  highly  value  the  Canadian  militia, 
having  had  the  advantage  upon  several  occasions  of  com- 
manding their  camps  of  exercise.  I  was  fuUy  aware  of  the 
splendid  material  of  which  that  force  was  constituted.  The 
men  are  extremely  handy  and  self-reliant ;  in  fact,  when 
well  trained,  they  cannot  be  beaten  as  fighting  soldiers. 
Their  officers,  accustomed  in  civil  life  to  think  for  them- 
selves, their  minds  not  dwarfed  or  trammelled  by  strict 
rules  and  regulations,  were  men  after  my  own  heart,  and 
for  the  work  before  us,  they  were  certainly  the  best 
possible  material.  In  parenthesis  may  I  say,  that  if 
wisdom  ruled  our  councils  upon  military  matters — it  does 
so  but  seldom — we  should  employ  a  Canadian  division 
under  their  own  officers  in  every  serious  war  we  under- 
take. Fortunate  indeed  will  be  the  Commander-in-Chief 
who  should  have  such  a  military  force  at  his  disposal  in 
any  war  into  which  England  may  be  forced. 

The  first  Battalion  of  the  Royal  Rifles,  then  in  Canada, 
was  to  be  the  Imperial  quota.     It  was  commanded  by  an 

174 


THE    RED    RIVER    FORCE 

excellent  soldier  in  every  sense,  Colonel  Feilden,  and  was  in 
all  respects  one  of  the  best  battalions  in  our  army.  A 
battalion  of  Ontario  Militia  under  Colonel  Jarvis,  and  one  of 
Quebec  Militia  under  Colonel  Cassault,  constituted  the 
brigade,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  any  better  or  more 
workmanlike  force  ever  took  the  field. 

I  carried  four  six-pounder  rifle  steel  guns  with  me.  Two 
of  them  I  intended  for  the  defence  of  my  base  on  Thunder 
Bay,  where  I  meant  to  leave  a  small  garrison  to  protect  the 
stores  I  should  collect  there.  There  had  been  some  "  tall 
talk  "  in  the  press  at  the  time  about  the  Fenians  attacking 
my  base  as  soon  as  the  expeditionary  force  had  started  for 
Fort  Garry.  I  never  believed  in  the  Fenians  :  they  talked 
and  wrote  too  much  of  their  "  intentions "  to  be  taken 
seriously.  Still,  however,  I  thought  some  such  precautions 
were  necessary,  and  felt  they  would  not  lose  in  importance 
at  the  hands  of  those  who  would  comment  upon  them  in  the 
press.  These  newspaper  reports  would  make  the  cautious 
creatures  who  sailed  under  the  rebel  Irish  flag  think  twice 
before  they  embarked  in  any  such  undertaking. 

The  remaining  two  of  these  guns  I  handed  over  to  my 
small  detachment  of  Royal  Artillery,  under  the  command  of 
Lieutenant  J.  Alleyne,  whom  I  had  selected  as  the  best 
artillery  officer  then  in  Canada.  He  was  a  good  yachtsman 
and  thoroughly  understood  aU  boat-work.  Indeed  he  was, 
I  may  say,  aU  round,  one  of  the  best  men  I  have  ever  known 
in  the  Army.  Had  he  lived  he  must  have  risen  to  the  highest 
position. 

Lieut.-General  the  Hon.  James  Lindsay — to  whom  I  have 
referred  in  a  previous  chapter — was  then  commanding  the 
troops  in  Canada.  He  was  a  wise  man  of  the  world  and  a 
soldier  in  every  sense,  highly  esteemed  by  aU  ranks  who  had 

175 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

the  advantage  of  knowing  him  well.  He  helped  me  in  all 
possible  ways  when  I  was  fitting  out  the  expedition,  and 
smoothed  the  way  for  me  with  the  Canadian  Government 
authorities,  not  always  then  the  easiest  of  people  to  deal 
with.  ^ 

The  total  distance~to  be  traversed  between  Port  Arthur 
and  Fort  Garry  was  over  600  miles,  and  the  range  of  hills 
that  we  had  to  cross,  and  which  divided  the  waters  which 
drained  into  Hudson  Bay  from  those  that  reached  the  sea 
by  the  St.  Lawrence  river,  was  about  800  feet  in  height. 
Everything  depended  upon  how  the  force  to  be  employed 
was  organized  and  equipped  before  starting.     After  we  had 
once  embarked  in  our  boats  on  Shebandowan  Lake,  we 
should  be  cut  off  absolutely  from  all  outside  help  and  should 
have  to  trust  entirely  to  our  own  exertions  and  pluck.     On 
the  way  to  Fort  Garry  we  could  not  receive  reinforcements, 
and,   worse   still,  could    obtain    no    provisions,    clothing, 
ammunition,   axes  or  other  tools.     Everything  we  required 
had  therefore  to  be  taken  with  us  in  our  boats,  and  their 
carrying  capacity  was  necessarily  very  limited.     AU  imple- 
ments for  use  during  the  expedition  had  to  be  both  strong 
and  light.    At  the  numerous  rocky  and  difficult  portages  to  be 
traversed,  our  boats  would  be  exposed  to  extremely  rougn 
usage,  for  which  they  would  have  to  be  well  buHt  of  good 
tough  material.     But  if  made  extra  heavy  for  this  purpose, 
their  great  weight  would  add  seriously  to  the  men's  labour 
in  dragging  them  over  the  steep  and  rugged  heights  to  be 
encountered  between  Lakes  Superior  and  Winnipeg.     Almost 
all  these  boats  were  about  thirty  feet  long,  with  a  propor- 
tionate beam  ;  all  had  keels,  and  were  about  half  and  half, 
carvel  and  clinker  built.     The  crew  of  each  consisted  of 
eight  or  nine  soldiers  and  two  or  three  Indians  or  other 

176 


BOAT  EQUIPMENT  PROVIDED 

civilians  who  were  selected  as  being,  "  voyageurs,"  or  good 
men  on  timber  rafts,  or  at  river  work  generally.  Each  boat 
carried  sixty  days'  provisions  for  aU  on  board  of  it,  in  the 
shape  of  salt  pork,  beans,  preserved  potatoes,  flour,  biscuit, 
salt,  tea  and  sugar.  No  spirits  of  any  sort  were  provided  for 
the  men,  and  the  officers  were  forbidden  to  take  any  wine 
for  their  own  use.  It  was  a  strictly  teetotal  undertaking. 
The  necessary  entrenching  tools,  ammunition,  tents,  water- 
proof sheets,  cooking  pots,  blankets,  etc.,  etc.,  left  but  httle 
empty  space  in  the  boats,  which  were  loaded  down  as  far  as 
they  could  be  with  due  regard  to  safety.  The  captain  of  each 
company  was  responsible  for  aU  these  stores,  and  to  him 
were  given  some  well-selected  boat-builders'  tools,  a  number 
of  tin  plates,  and  plenty  of  white  lead  for  patching  up  holes 
or  injuries  done  to  the  boats.  All  such  minutiae  had  to  be 
well  thought  out  and  every  calculable  contingency  provided 
for. 

It  was  essential  to  study  the  "  job  "  as  a  whole,  and  to 
calculate  out  everything  with  the  greatest  nicety.  The 
experience  I  had  had  in  canoe-work  and  in  the  woods 
during  my  seven  or  eight  years'  service  in  Canada, 
helped  me  greatly,  and  my  numerous  friends  in  the 
Dominion  gave  me  the  best  possible  advice.  The 
Public  Works  helped  me  in  every  way :  one  of  its 
officers,  Mr.  Dawson,  knew  the  country  I  was  about  to  pass 
through  perfectly  well.  Indeed,  he  had  carefully  studied 
the  route  the  expedition  took,  and  had  laid  out  the  road 
which  connected  Thunder  Bay  with  Shebandowan  Lake. 

AU  the  officers  with  the  expeditionary  force  soon  became 
expert  in  making  portages  and  in  mending  their  boats,  no  one 
more  so  than  my  very  able  friend  and  valued  comrade  Redvers 
Buller.     It  was  here  I  first  made  his  acquaintance,  and  I 

VOL.  II.  177  N 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

am  proud  to  feel  that  we  have  been  firm  friends  ever 
since.  He  was  a  first-rate  axeman,  and  I  think  he  was  the 
only  man  with  us  of  any  rank  who  could  carry  a  loo-pound 
barrel  of  pork  over  a  portage  on  his  back.  He  could  mend 
a  boat  and  have  her  back  in  the  water  with  her  crew  and  all 
her  stores  on  board  whilst  many,  under  similar  circumstances, 
would  have  been  still  making  up  their  minds  what  to  do. 
Full  of  resource,  and  personally  absolutely  fearless,  those 
serving  under  him  always  trusted  him  fully.  He  afterwards 
served  as  my  Chief  of  the  Staff  in  the  expedition  sent  too 
late  to  try  and  relieve  the  hero  and  martyr,  General  Charles 
Gordon,  in  Khartoum,  and  no  man  ever  deserved  better 
of  his  country  than  he  did  upon  that  occasion. 

We  took  nets,  hoping  to  catch  fish  on  the  way,  as  the 
rivers  and  lakes  to  be  crossed  were  said  to  be  well  stocked, 
but  we  never  had  time  to  use  them  :  "  Push  on,  push  on," 
was  our  war  cry,  and  it  was  in  every  man's  mouth  from 
first  to  last.  Our  time  was  Hmited,  for  the  Royal  Rifles  had 
to  get  back  to  Canada  before  the  frost  set  in.  Besides,  most 
of  us  felt  we  had  to  settle  accounts  quickly  with  Riel, 
who  had  murdered  the  Englishman,  Mr.  Scott.  Had 
we  caught  him  he  would  have  had  no  mercy. 

Upon  the  subject  of  stores  one  little  fact  may  amuse  my 
reader.  At  that  time  the  pattern  of  our  field  axe  was  very 
bad.  It  was  absolutely  useless  for  all  "  tree-feUing " 
purposes,  and  was  so  ancient  in  type  that  it  might  have 
come  down  to  us  from  Saxon  times.  I  remember  how  the 
Canadian  lumbermen  laughed  when  shown  one  of  these  pre- 
historic implements.  I  would  have  none  of  them,  and 
purchased  serviceable  American  axes  of  the  double-wedge 
pattern  instead.  Since  that  time,  this  pattern  has  been 
adopted  for  our  army  generally.      I  must  add  that  almost 

178 


BADNESS    OF    ARMY    TOOLS 

all  our  tools  and  field  implements  were  then  of  an  inferior 
quality.  When  we  tried  to  cut  brushwood  and  smsJl 
bushes  with  the  regulation  billhook  we  made  little  impression 
upon  them,  but  they  made  their  mark  upon  the  billhook, 
whose  edge,  under  even  that  easy  trial,  soon  assumed  the 
appearance  of  a  dissipated  saw. 

This  was  my  first  independent  command,  so  I  was  on  my 
mettle,  and  felt  that  if  I  possessed  any  genius  for  such 
practical  work,  the  time  had  at  last  arrived  for  me  to  show 
it.  I  made  all  the  necessary  calculations  myself,  after  the 
most  careful  study  of  the  route  to  be  taken,  of  the  time  it 
would  take  to  reach  Fort  Garry  and  to  settle  matters  there 
when  I  had  reached  it.  I  was  to  leave  the  two  battalions  of 
Canadian  militia  at  that  place,  so  the  return  journey  would 
be  a  smaller  operation  and  the  pace  would  consequently 
be  much  quicker.  The  Regular  Troops  upon  their  return 
journey  would  find  every  portage  already  cleared,  and  fit 
for  immediate  use. 

I  calculated  it  would  take  about  forty  days  to  make  the 
journey  in  boats  from  Lake  Shebandowan  to  Fort  Garry 
by  the  route  I  intended  to  follow.  The  three  battahons, 
etc.,  should  therefore  reach  that  place  with  enough  provisions 
in  hand  for  the  battalion  of  the  Royal  Rifles  and  of  the 
detachments  of  Royal  Artillery  and  Royal  Engineers 
during  their  return  journey  to  Thunder  Bay.  The  margin 
for  mishaps  was,  I  considered,  sufficient,  but  not  in  any 
way  extravagant.  It  was  a  matter  of  serious  consequence 
that  the  troops  returning  to  Canada  should  get  over  the 
range  of  mountains  which  formed  the  watershed  between 
Lakes  Superior  and  Winnipeg  before  the  first  severe  frost 
had  set  in.  Ice,  even  a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick,  upon  any 
of  the  many  lakes  to  be  traversed  would  have  cut  through 

179 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

the  thin  sides  of  my  boats.  Yet  I  dared  not  make  them 
thicker,  as  every  extra  pound  added  to  their  weight,  and 
consequently  to  the  work  of  hauHng  them  over  the  numer- 
ous portages  to  be  crossed.  Many  of  these  portages  were 
long,  and  a  stiU  greater  number  were  very  steep.  But  for 
the  return  journey  the  boats  would  be  much  lighter,  and 
consequently  the  rate  of  progress  would  be  quicker. 


1 80 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

The  Lakes,  Rivers  and  Wilderness  to  be  traversed, 

1870 

THE  country  we  were  about  to  pass  through  was  then 
only  known  to  those  employed  by  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company.  Their  chief  posts  in  it  were  at  Fort 
William,  where  the  Kaministiguia  River  falls  into  Thunder 
Bay,  at  Fort  Francis — about  half  way  by  water  to 
Fort  Garry — and  at  Rat  Portage,  where  the  Winnipeg  River 
leaves  the  north  end  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  As  a  general 
rule  the  Company  sent  its  annual  supply  of  stores,  for  that 
district,  by  ship  to  Hudson's  Bay,  whence  they  were  carried 
by  boat  up  the  St.  John's  River  to  Lake  Winnipeg. 

My  orders  were  to  proceed  to  Thunder  Bay,  on  the  western 
shores  of  Lake  Superior,  and  to  make  my  way  thence  in 
boats  to  the  Red  River  Settlement.  Starting  from  Toronto, 
the  beautiful  capital  of  the  magnificent  province  of  Ontario, 
our  route  was  first  north  by  rail  for  ninety-four  miles  to 
Collingwood,  the  railway  terminus  on  Georgian  Bay.  From 
that  port,  steamers  conveyed  us  across  Lake  Huron  and 
through  the  St.  Mary  River  into  Lake  Superior  and  over  it 
to  Thunder  Bay,  a  total  distance  of  534  miles.  Thence  to 
Fort  Garry  was  660  miles.  The  first  bit  of  that  distance  was 
along  a  partly  made  road  of  forty-eight  miles  to  Lake 
Shebandowan,  from  which  lake  the  remainder  of  the  journey 
was  to  be  by  water. 

181 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

The  Lake  Superior  basin  sends  its  waters  eastward  over 
Niagara  down  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  into  the  sea 
below  Quebec,  whilst  the  Lake  Winnipeg  basin  is  drained  by 
the  St.  John's  River  that  runs  northward  into  Hudson's  Bay. 
A  range  of  rugged  and,  in  1870,  little  explored  mountains 
runs  fairly  parallel  with  the  northern  shores  of  Lake  Superior, 
and  circling  round  its  western  limits  restricts  the  basin  very 
much  on  that  side.  As  it  bends  southwards,  round  Thunder 
Bay,  at  a  mean  distance  from  it  of  about  eighty  miles,  this 
range  diminishes  in  height  and  importance.  Still,  however, 
the  lowest  pass  over  it  in  that  region  is  about  839  feet  above 
the  lake,  and  through  that  pass  I  was  to  take  my  Expedi- 
tionary Force. 

During  the  two  preceding  years  the  Canadian  Government 
had  made  feeble  and  intermittent  efforts  to  open  out  a  route 
from  Thunder  Bay  to  Fort  Garry.  Working  parties  had  been 
at  times  fitfully  engaged  in  the  construction  of  a  road  from 
that  bay  to  the  Shebandowan  Lake.  That  beautiful  sheet 
of  water — about  twenty  miles  in  length  and  a  few  miles  in 
width — is  over  800  feet  above  the  level  of  Lake  Superior. 
Thence  by  lake  and  rivers  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  the  dis- 
tance was  about  310  miles,  there  being  about  seventeen 
portages  to  be  made  and  crossed  along  it.  I  may  explain 
that  a  "portage  "  means  a  break  in  the  chain  of  water 
communication  over  which  all  canoes  and  boats  have  to  be 
hauled  or  carried,  as  I  shall  describe  further  on,  and  all 
food,  stores,  etc.,  transported  by  the  soldiers  on  their  backs. 
Some  of  the  portages  we  crossed  were  over  a  mile  in  length. 

The  Lake  of  the  Woods  was  of  considerable  length,  and  the 
passage  over  it  was  sure  to  be  very  tedious,  as  we  had  no 
useful  maps  of  that  district.  Owing  to  the  intricate  maze 
formed  by  its  seeming  infinity  of  islands,  and  of  promontories 

182 


THE    CHIPPEWAHS 

resembling  islands,  many  a  boat's  crew,  after  hours  of  rowing, 
would  often  find  themselves  in  some  cul  de  sac.  Much  time 
would  thus  be  lost  and  the  temper  of  aU  employed  would 
certainly  be  severely  tried. 

The  Winnipeg  River  had  a  bad  reputation  amongst  voya- 
geurs  as  very  dangerous  and  difficult.  There  were  at  least 
thirty  portages  on  it,  several  of  which  were  terrifying  to  look 
at.  I  have  seen  many  rivers  in  many  countries,  but  for  the 
exquisite  beauty  of  foaming,  raging  water  in  great  volume 
amidst  such  extremely  wild  and  beautiful  scenery  as  it 
passes  through  for  about  150  miles,  I  know  of  nothing  to 
equal  it.  The  Chippewahs,  to  whom  it  may  be  said  the 
district  between  Lake  Superior  and  the  prairie  belongs,  have 
been  for  the  last  century  a  peaceful,  lazy  and  uninteresting 
race.  They  keep  to  the  forests  along  the  rivers  and  lakes, 
and  are  seldom  to  be  seen  in  the  prairie  country.  Good 
men  in  canoes,  they  show  to  the  best  advantage  on  difficult 
rivers.  They  live  largely  on  fish,  but  obtain  a  small  amount 
of  flour  at  the  Hudson  Bay  posts  in  exchange  for  mink  and 
other  skins.  In  summer  they  move  to  where  the  blueberry 
abounds,  with  which  they  cram  themselves  for  a  month,  and 
upon  many  islands  in  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  I  found  small 
patches  where  they  had  planted  potatoes.  I  was  told  they 
also  plant  a  little  Indian  com. 

I  have  thus  endeavoured  to  convey  briefly  to  my 
reader  a  rough  outline  of  the  route  we  were  to  follow 
and  of  the  obstacles  to  be  faced  by  aU  ranks 
destined  to  take  part  in  this  expedition,  for  all 
alike  had  to  do  much  manual  work.  I  have  avoided 
unnecessary  detail  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  affording  some 
general  information  as  to  the  difficulties  of  the  route,  giving 
a  fair  idea  of  the  preparations  made  beforehand  to  meet  and 

183 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

overcome  them.  When  I  now  recall  the  events  connected 
with  this  undertaking,  and  how  much  I  had  to  demand  from 
all  ranks  in  the  force  employed  in  order  to  accomplish  the 
task  we  had  confided  to  us,  I  am  not  surprised  that  the  home 
Government  paused  and  rather  shied  at  the  proposal  that 
any  Imperial  troops  should  take  part  in  it.  Truly  it  was  a 
peculiar  undertaking,  and  any  serious  mistake  on  the  part 
of  the  Commander  during  its  progress  might,  and  probably 
would,  have  entailed  disaster. 

Lake  Superior  is  usually  sufficiently  clear  of  ice  for  naviga- 
tion purposes  by  the  second  week  of  May,  and  as  part  of  the 
force  intended  for  Fort  Garry  was  to  return  to  Canada  by 
the  same  route,  it  was  essential  that  the  expedition  should 
start  at  the  earliest  possible  date.  Steamers  from  Colling- 
wood  can  only  reach  Lake  Superior  by  the  St.  Mary  River, 
the  dividing  boundary  throughout  its  whole  length  of  fifty 
miles,  between  Canada  and  the  United  States.  There  is  a 
bad  rapid,  unnavigable  by  steamers,  on  this  river,  known  as 
"  The  Sault  St.  Mary."  To  avoid  it  the  Americans  had 
constructed  a  canal  three  miles  in  length,  on  their  side  of 
the  river,  so  that  aU  our  steamers  bound  for  Lake  Superior 
would  have  to  pass  for  that  distance  through  United  States 
territory,  as  we  had  then  no  canal  on  our  side  of  the  river. 

The  Fenians  thought  they  saw  in  this  Red  River  Expedi- 
tion an  opportunity  of  stirring  up  enmity  between  England 
and  the  United  States.  Our  troops  would  have  to  pass  close 
to  the  iU-defined  frontier  that  divides  our  territory  from  that 
of  the  States,  and  it  might  perhaps  be  possible  to  raise  the 
cry  that  we  had  violated  our  neighbour's  boundaries. 

The  Irish  question  has  always  been  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of 
every  President  and  Government  at  Washington.  But  the 
Irish  vote  was,  and  I  fear  must  long  be,  a  matter  of  great 

184 


FENIAN    HOPES    AND    PROJECTS 

importance  to  the  wirepullers  of  both  the  political  parties 
in  the  States.  At  the  time  I  write  of,  the  leaders  of  neither 
party  dared  offend  so  powerful  an  organization,  that  voted 
"  solid  "  according  to  the  orders  of  their  chiefs. 

These  Fenian  projects  met  with  great  sympathy  from  the 
press  of  the  Western  States,  which  urged  the  desirability  of 
hindering  in  every  possible  way  the  arrival  of  our  troops  at 
Fort  Garry.  These  facts  were  well  known  to  the  Governor- 
General  of  Canada  and  were  communicated  to  me.  It  was 
therefore  thought  advisable  to  send  an  ordinary  steamer, 
with  merchandize  only  on  board,  through  the  Sault  St.  Mary 
Canal  into  Lake  Superior  as  soon  as  the  ice  had  sufficiently 
cleared  off  to  admit  of  this  being  done.  Even  one  steamer 
on  that  lake  would  render  us  fairly  independent  of  the  canal 
should  the  United  States  Government  positively  forbid  its 
use  to  us. 

When  our  merchant  steamer  appeared  at  the  lower  end  of 
the  canal,  the  officials  on  the  spot  were  taken  by  surprise, 
and  having  received  no  orders  from  their  Government  on  the 
subject,  allL-.-'^ed  her  to  pass  through.  Once  through  it,  and 
its  length  is  only  three  miles,  the  steamer  was  in  British 
waters,  as  the  St.  Mary  River  is  there  the  common  property  of 
both  nations.  It  was  deemed  advisable — in  case  of  accidents 
— to  have  at  least  two  steamers  on  Lake  Superior  for  the  use 
of  our  expeditionary  force.  But  the  Canadian  steamer 
that  next  sought  to  pass  through  this  canal  was  refused 
permission,  although  she  had  no  war  material  of  any  kind 
on  board.  We  fortunately  found  an  American  steamer  with 
an  American  captain  who  hired  himself  and  his  vessel  to  us 
for  work  upon  Lake  Superior  for  that  season.  Entirely  of 
his  own  accord  he  made  an  affidavit  before  the  United  States 
authorities,  that  she  had  not  been  hired  by  the  British,'^and 

185 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

that  he  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  Red  River 
Expedition.  By  this  hard  swearing  he  got  safely  through 
into  Lake  Superior.  We  were  thus  provided  with  two 
steamers  for  use  on  its  waters. 

We  had  never  contemplated  sending  troops  through  this 
canal.  Our  intention  was  to  land  them  below  the  "  Sault," 
on  our  side  of  the  St.  Mary  River,  and  to  march  them  three 
miles  to  the  head  of  the  canal  to  re-embark  in  the  same 
steamer,  which  we  hoped  would  be  allowed  to  go  through 
the  canal  provided  it  had  no  inculpatory  war  material  on 
board.  We  had  allowed  the  United  States  Government  to 
send  vessels  with  war  material  on  board,  and  even  in  one 
instance  had  granted  permission  to  one  of  their  gun-boats  to 
pass  through  our  St.  Lawrence  River  canals  during  the 
progress  of  their  Confederate  War.  We  had  consequently 
hoped  the  Washington  Government  would  show  us  equal 
consideration  in  the  matter  of  this  St.  Mary  River  canal,  as 
long  as  we  did  not  send  armed  men  through  their  territory. 
But  we  reckoned  without  our  host,  and  at  first  the  answer 
we  received  was  an  official  notification  that  no  other  British 
ships,  whatever  might  be  their  cargo,  would  be  allowed,  until 
further  orders,  to  pass  through  this  canal. 

When  these  matters  were  reported  to  Lord  Lisgar,  then 
our  Governor-General  in  Canada,  he  sent  a  formal  protest  to 
the  United  States  Government  at  Washington  on  the  subject, 
which  resulted  in  the  canal  being  thrown  open  to  all  our  ships 
not  carrying  munitions  of  war.  But  all  these  proceedings 
on  the  part  of  the  American  authorities  delayed  us.  Short 
of  going  to  war  they  could  not  have  stopped  the  expedition, 
do  what  they  might,  so  the  line  they  took  was  very  foolish. 
They  gained  nothing  by  it,  whilst  they  annoyed  us  much  to 
no  useful  purpose. 

i86 


PRINCE    ARTHUR'S    LANDING 

In  Thunder  Bay  we  steered  for  a  small  clearance  that 
had  been  made  by  the  Canadian  Public  Works  Depart- 
ment as  the  starting  point  for  the  road  to  Shebandowan. 
There  I  landed  and  formed  a  camp  for  my  brigade.  I  named 
the  place  "  Prince  Arthur's  Landing,"  after  the  Duke  of 
Connaught,  who  as  Prince  Arthur  had  recently  spent  a  winter 
with  his  regiment  in  Montreal. 

A  few  shanties  had  been  erected  before  our  arrival  as 
storehouses,  but  it  was  an  ugly  looking  spot,  for  everything, 
including  the  ground  and  the  trees,  had  recently  been  burnt 
black  by  a  great  forest  fire.  The  conflagration  had  spread 
inland,  destroying  bridges,  culverts,  shanties,  and  every 
blade  of  grass  along  the  new  road.  Nothing  remained  any- 
where but  tall  blackened  gaunt  trunks  of  trees  and  smoke- 
disfigured  rocks.  I  never  looked  upon  a  drearier  or  less 
inviting  prospect  in  any  of  my  many  wanderings. 

I  landed  on  May  25,  1870,  and  pitched  my  tent  on 
the  ground  overlooking  the  bay.  The  lake  beyond  it 
is  so  large,  that  it  may  well  be  called  an  inland  fresh- 
water sea.  The  shores,  rich  in  minerals,  are  in  many  parts 
very  beautiful,  though  still  but  little  known  to  English 
tourists.  Our  camps  were  laid  out  with  as  great  regularity 
as  the  broken  nature  of  the  ground  would  admit.  Never 
have  men  worked  harder  than  those  who  landed  with  me 
there.  The  stores,  food,  ammunition,  etc.,  etc.,  had  to  be 
landed  and  carried  to  the  places  prepared  for  their  reception  ; 
paths  had  to  be  made,  a  strong  redoubt  to  be  constructed  for 
the  defence  of  the  reserve  of  food,  etc.,  etc.,  I  meant  to  leave 
there  ;  large  parties  were  required  daily  along  the  Sheban- 
dowan road,  which  was  still  a  very  poor  highway  for  my 
heavily  laden  wagons.  Before  leaving  Montreal,  I  had  been 
assured  by  the  Canadian  Government  that  this  road  would 

187 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

be  open  for  traffic  by  the  end  of  May,  but  not  more  than 
thirty  of  the  forty-eight  miles  to  which  it  extended  had  been 
completed  by  that  date.,  and  for  many  miles  the  forest  was 
still  uncut  along  the  route  selected. 

This  threw  so  much  heavy  and  unexpected  work  upon  my 
soldiers  that  I  thought  it  advisable  to  have  the  Kaminis- 
tiguia  River  explored,  as  it  ran  out  of  Lake  Shebandowan 
into  Lake  Superior.  We  had  been  told  that  its  rapids  and 
its  falls  were  of  so  terrible  a  nature  that  it  was  absolutely 
hopeless  to  think  of  navigating  it  in  any  way.  One  fall  was 
known  to  be  over  120  feet  in  height.  I  sent  a  company  of 
the  Royal  Rifles  to  explore  it,  whose  captain  was  one  of  the 
very  hardiest  campaigners  I  ever  knew.  I  went  there  to 
examine  it  and  found  myself  in  Hiawatha's  romantically 
beautiful  country.  The  scenery  was  very  grand  and  strik- 
ing, but  the  river  was  certainly  no  first  class  highway.  How- 
ever it  was  a  help,  and  relieved  the  great  pressure  upon  the 
still  partly  unfinished  road  to  Shebandowan. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  enter  into  any  particulars  of  the 
many  appliances  we  used  for  carrying  our  impedimenta 
over  the  portages,  but  it  was  wonderful  how  quickly  the 
little  Londoners  of  the  Royal  Rifles  became  good  men  in  the 
boats  and  on  the  portages  also.  By  the  time  they  had  made 
the  trip  to  Fort  Garry  and  back  to  Lake  Superior,  both 
officers  and  men  of  that  corps  had  become  good,  many  of 
them  expert  axemen,  and  all  more  or  less  skilled  in  the  craft 
of  the  voyageur.  All  ranks  in  the  two  Canadian  battalions 
became  proficient  in  the  work  more  quickly,  but  indeed, 
where  every  man  worked  as  if  the  success  of  the  expedition 
depended  solely  upon  his  individual  exertion  and  skill,  it  is 
difficult  and  it  would  be  invidious,  to  draw  any  comparison 
in  this  respect  between_^the  ,three  battalions  employed. 

188 


WE  SPLIT  ROCKS  AS  HANNIBAL  DID 

I  had  to  send  forward  Companies  to  complete  the  road  to 
Shebandowan.     The  men  worked  at  it  through  the  month 
of  June  and  half  of  July  as  if  the  Old  Gentleman  himself 
were  driving  them  forward  ;  all  felt  that  the  sooner  it  was 
finished  the  sooner  would  they  be  able  to  make  their  final 
start  for  the  Red  River.     Many  of  us  in  youth  have  in  our 
ignorance  ridiculed  Livy's  story  of  how  Hannibal  split  the 
rocks  which  hindered  the  passage  of  his  army  by  first  lighting 
great  fires  on  and  around  them,  and  when  they  had  been 
thus  made  extremely  hot  sousing  them  suddenly  with  cold 
wine.     I  found  that  a  similar  process  was  commonly  em- 
ployed by  roadmaking  parties  in  the  wild  parts  of  Canada, 
and  that  this  method  was  most  ejQ&cacious.     There  was 
always  ample  material  at  hand  in  the  way  of  firewood,  and 
water  was  found  to  answer  the  purpose  quite  as  effectually 
as  wine.     I  am  sure  that  none  of  my  men  would  have  wasted 
good  liquor  in  the  construction  of  roads,  as  the  great  Cartha- 
ginian is  said  to  have  done  when  crossing  the  Alps  !     A  con- 
siderable amount  of  "  corderoy  "  work  was  here  and  there 
necessary,  and  there  were  many  bridges,  varying  much  in 
size,  to  be  constructed.      On  all  sides  the  work  was  very 
heavy  and  incessant  and  the  heat  considerable.     The  mos- 
quitoes, sand-flies  and  black-flies  drew  blood  freely  and 
rendered  sleep  difficult ;  I  had  provided  each  man  with  a 
veil,  but  after  a  little  whfle  it  was  difficult  to  make  them  use 
it.     It  came  in  handy,  however,  later  on  for  straining  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods  water,  which  was  densely  loaded  with 
vegetable  matter.  Many  Canadian  prophets  of  evil — opposed 
to  the  undertaking — had  tried  to  frighten  me  with  "traveller's 
yarns  "  of  the  torture  we  should  suffer  from  these  pests. 
They  were,  I  confess,  a  great  source  of  worry  and  annoyance, 
but  my  men  made  light  of  them.     Besides  the  veils,  I  had 

189 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

also  supplied  each  boat  with  a  can  of  "  mosquito  oil,"  such 
as  I  had  found  efficacious  when  salmon  fishing  on  the  Cana- 
dian rivers.  But  the  men  scorned  it  for  that  purpose,  though 
they  were  glad  to  use  it  in  their  lamps  later  on.  Fortun- 
ately it  was  not  an  explosive  compound. 

Whilst  every  one  was  hard  at  work  as  long  as  daylight 
lasted  in  preparing  for  our  embarkation,  a  deputation 
arrived  from  the  once  great  tribe  of  the  Chippewahs  or 
Ojibewahs — for  Fame  spells  their  names  both  ways — to  ask 
me  for  what  purpose  I  had  come  to  their  country  and  why  I 
was  making  a  road  through  it  without  having  first  come  to 
terms  with  them,  and  so  on.  The  orator  of  the  party,  whose 
title  was  "  Blackstone,"  had  travelled  in  a  cart  the  last  few 
miles  of  his  journey  to  meet  me,  a  mode  of  conveyance  he 
had  never  tried  before.  The  feeling  of  importance  this  novel 
position  conferred  upon  him  was,  however,  mingled  with 
terror,  as  all  Wood  Indians  have  an  instinctive  dread  of 
horses.  Before  entering  the  camp  he  stopped  at  a  little 
stream  to  make  his  toilet.  With  a  small  piece  of  wet  soap 
he  plastered  his  black  locks  into  long  straight  tails,  then 
tied  a  mink  skin  round  them,  into  which  at  the  back  of  his 
head  he  stuck  some  eagle's  feathers  and  fastened  some  ermine 
tails  all  around.  His  party  consisted  of  a  squaw,  three 
men  and  two  boys,  all  of  whom  were  formally  introduced 
into  my  presence.  It  is  not  always  easy  to  look  strictly 
solemn,  though  no  Indian  will  ever  even  smile  upon  such 
occasions.  He  made  a  long  speech  with  aU  the  manner  of  a 
well-bred  English  gentleman  and  with  much  impressive 
gesticulation.  The  gist  of  what  he  said  lay  in  the  question 
of  how  much  I  meant  to  pay  him  and  his  immediate  tribe 
as  compensation  for  our  invasion  of  his  hereditary  hunting 
grounds.    It  was  a  very  natural  question,  for  I  could  not  but 

190 


THE    INDIANS'    GREAT    MOTHER 

feel  that  what  we  in  our  superior  wisdom  were  pleased  to 
describe  as  opening  up  the  district  meant  to  him  and  his 
people  the  eventual  destruction  of  all  the  fur-bearing  animals 
by  the  trapping  and  selling  of  which  these  Indians  and  their 
forebears  had  supported  themselves  and  their  families  for 
generations.  They  expressed  themselves  as  devotedly 
loyal  to  the  "  Great  Mother,"  meaning  the  Queen,  and  as 
anxious  to  help  us  in  all  possible  ways.  I  told  them  we  were 
so  busy  at  the  moment  that  I  could  not  attend  to  those 
matters,  but  that  an  officer  at  Fort  Francis  would  be  deputed 
to  arrange  them  with  him  at  that  station.  We  parted  on 
good  terms,  and  the  Chief  was  kind  enough  to  say  that  in 
the  meantime  he  hoped  we  should  freely  use  all  the  wood 
and  water  we  might  require  along  our  line  of  route.  I 
ordered  the  Chief  and  each  man  of  his  party  to  be  supplied 
with  a  suit  of  clothes  :  one  and  all  selected  a  frock  coat  of  the 
finest  cloth,  such  being  the  garment  dearest  to  aU  these  poor 
simple  fellows,  although  the  least  suited  to  their  daily  mode 
of  hfe.  In  the  course  of  my  North  American  wanderings  I 
have  never  encountered  any  Indian  tribes  without  exper- 
iencing a  feeling  of  remorse  not  only  for  having  robbed  them 
of  their  hunting  grounds,  but  still  more  for  killing  them  off 
with  the  fatal  poison  of  whiskey. 

Most  of  our  boats  required  repairs  by  the  time  they  had 
reached  Shebandowan.  To  drag  them  up  the  roaring  rapids 
and  over  the  sharp  rocks  of  the  Kaministiguia  River  until 
they  had  reached  this  lake,  800  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
waters  they  started  from,  was  a  stupendous  task  for  the 
men  and  a  serious  trial  to  the  boats.  I  had  to  estabhsh  a 
sort  of  dockyard  on  that  lake  where  all  were  overhauled, 
duly  mended,  and  fitted  with  oars,  masts  and  sails.  There 
I  also  re-coopered  our  barrels  of  pork,  filling  up  with  brine 

191 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S   LIFE 

those  that  had  leaked  during  the  very  rough  hauHng  they 
had  encountered  in  this  first  section  of  the  journey. 

Mr.  Dawson,  an  able  and  hardworking  public  servant, 
who  had  been  the  pioneer  of  the  route  we  followed  from 
Thunder  Bay  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  did  all  in  his  power 
to  help  forward  the  expedition.  I  often  pitied  him,  for  his 
work  was  constant  and  the  assistants  sent  to  him  by  the 
Minister  responsible  for  the  department  in  the  Canadian 
Cabinet  were  only  too  often  drunkards  or  incapables ;  they 
mostly  belonged,  in  fact,  to  the  class  well  known  in  America 
as  "  loafers,"  who,  when  a  liquor  bar  is  handy,  spend  most  of 
their  time  there.  In  this  case  some  were  the  ne'er-do-weel 
friends  of  politicians  then  in  office.  Upon  one  occasion  I 
met  one  of  these  "  loafers  "  at  a  roadside  station.  When 
asked  the  nature  of  his  occupation  he  said,without  hesitation, 
that  he  had  none  in  particular,  his  uncle  had  merely  given 
him  this  billet  in  order  that  he  might  be  taken  at  Govern- 
ment expense  to  Manitoba,  where  he  had  a  brother  whom 
he  wanted  to  join. 

We  had  experienced  many  very  heavy  thunderstorms 
whilst  encamped  at  Prince  Arthur's  landing.  There  is  much 
hematite  iron  in  that  neighbourhood,  and  I  often  wondered 
if  its  presence  exercised  any  magnetic  attraction  over  the 
electricity  with  which  the  heavens  in  that  region  seem  to  be 
specially  charged.  But  during  the  night  of  July  15,  when 
encamped  at  Shebandowan,  we  had  a  thunderstorm  to  which 
aU  the  others — and  we  had  had  several — were  merely  boys' 
crackers  compared  with  the  firing  of  a  monster  gun.  Whilst 
it  lasted  the  heavens  seemed  at  times  to  open  and  let  fall 
great  crushing  weights  of  explosives  upon  the  earth  beneath, 
which  apparently  trembled  at  the  shock.  Then  followed  a 
rain  the  Hke  of  which  I  have  never  seen  even  in  the  Tropics.  It 

192 


A  STORM  WITH  RAIN  AND  THUNDER 

feU  upon  us,  not  in  drops  but  literally  as  sheets  of  water  in 
rapid  succession.  It  suddenly  began  to  fall  and  ended  as 
abruptly.  I  had,  a  considerable  time  back,  named  the 
following  day,  July  i6,  for  the  final  start  of  our  expedition 
for  Fort  Garry.  As  is  usually  the  case  in  such  matters,  when 
the  day  drew  near  my  calculations  seemed  to  have  been  all 
wrong,  and  few  thought  I  could  carry  out  the  announcement  I 
had  made.  I  rejoiced  much  when  this  fearful  storm  overtook 
us  that  it  had  not  come  a  day  later.  It  was  the  thought  upper- 
most in  my  mind  as  I  heard  the  deafening  peals  of  thunder 
and  the  splash  of  the,  to  me,  unprecedented  fall  of  rain  which 
followed.  To  my  extreme  joy,  day  broke  the  following 
morning  with  all  the  promise  of  fine  weather.  A  bright  sun 
gladdened  all,  and  soon  dried  the  clothes  of  those  who  had 
suffered  most  during  the  rainstorm  of  the  previous  evening. 
Looking  back  to  the  trying  events  of  our  many  wet  and 
dreary  bivouacs,  where  sleep  came  only  in  snatches,  the 
misery  of  such  nights  is  almost  swallowed  up  and  forgotten 
in  my  recollection  of  the  exquisite  joy  which  the  bright 
sunny  morning,  that  usually  followed,  shed  on  aU 
of  us.  Even  the  poor  devil  who  had  had  to  pass  the 
night  on  a  muddy  bed  as  best  he  could  without  his  great- 
coat, soon  smiled  aU  over  as  the  rays  of  a  genial  sun 
began  to  warm  him.  When  all  around  us  is  thus  bright- 
ened, generous  hope  once  more  resumes  her  sway  and 
blots  out  the  remembrance  of  recent  misery.  A  strong 
westerly  wind,  however,  set  in  with  the  first  rays  of 
daylight,  and  although  it  dried  our  clothes,  it  raised  a  big 
sea  which  broke  violently  in  a  heavy  surf  upon  the  sandy 
beach  of  McNeil's  Bay.  Whilst  it  lasted,  aU  embarkations 
had  to  be  suspended.  It  did  not  begin  to  abate  until  the  sun 
had  sunk  near  the  horizon,  but  as  soon  as  the  boats  already 
VOL.  II.  193  0 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

launched  could  be  safely  brought  alongside  the  bank  to  be 
loaded,  the  first  embarkation  began.  It  was  late  before  the 
order  to  start  was  given  to  the  first  detachment,  which 
consisted  of  two  companies  of  the  Royal  Rifles,  a  party  of 
Royal  Artillery  with  two  7-pounder  rifle  guns,  and  another 
of  Royal  Engineers,  all  under  the  command  of  that  excellent 
soldier,  Colonel  Feilden,  of  the  Royal  Rifles. 

It  was  an  exciting  moment  when  we  wished  them  "  God- 
speed "  with  aU  our  heart,  and  watched  them  pull  away  from 
that  beach  of  gold-coloured  sand,  which  still  shone  in  aU  the 
bright  glories  of  a  setting  sun.  They  quickly  disappeared 
into  the  evening  mist  just  then  beginning  to  rise  from  the  lake. 
I  fully  understood  the  great  natural  difficulties  they  would 
meet  with  and  would  have  to  overcome.  But  I  was  equally 
certain  that  if  determined  courage,  strengthened  by  the  best 
and  highest  military  discipline,  could  possibly  overcome  all 
such  obstacles.  Colonel  Feilden  and  his  men  would  do  it. 
The  wind  had  died  away,  as  it  usually  does  there  towards 
evening.  The  weather  was  delightful,  the  lake  so  lately 
stormy,  was  in  its  best  and  most  placid  beauty,  reflecting  on 
its  mirror-like  surface  the  beach  and  other  trees  on  the  high 
ground  around  it.  For  the  moment  aU  was  still  and  quiet. 
The  day's  work  was  over.  Strange  to  say,  no  hum  of  insect 
or  chirp  of  bird  ever  comes  from  these  northern  parts  of  the 
Canadian  forests,  and  there  were  no  swaUows  to  skim  over 
the  lake  below  and  lend  life  to  its  great  expanse  of  water. 

The  whole  scene,  with  its  picturesque  military  accessories, 
was  for  many  reasons  very  impressive.  It  brought  to  my 
mind  the  stories  read  in  boyhood  of  how  wild  bands  of 
fierce  Norse  freebooters  set  out  from  some  secluded  bay 
in  quest  of  plunder  and  adventure. 

One  great  peculiarity  of  our  undertaking  struck  me  forcibly 

194 


POLITICIANS    TRY    TO    FRIGHTEN    US 

at  the  time  :  that  in  an  age,  justly  celebrated  for  its  inven- 
tions and  scientific  progress,  such  a  military  expedition 
should  start  unaided  in  any  fashion  by  either  the  steam 
engine  or  the  electric  telegraph.  We  were  to  depend  exclu- 
sively upon  sail  and  oar  to  reach  our  far-off  destination,  just 
as  the  Greeks  and  Romans  had  been  forced  to  do  in  their 
foreign  campaigns  some  twenty  centuries  before.  Another 
curious  fact  was,  that  upon  reaching  our  destination  we 
should  be  as  far  from  a  telegraph  station  as  Caesar  was  from 
Rome  when  he  jumped  ashore  in  Kent  with  his  legions  a 
little  before  the  Christian  era. 

Several  of  the  French-speaking  politicians  and  their  bigoted 
priests  wished  us  to  fail.  The  newspapers  they  influenced 
were  anxious  to  frighten  us  with  fanciful  accounts  of  the 
great  physical  obstacles  that  lay  in  our  path.  They  dwelt 
upon  the  courage  of  the  half-breed  enemy,  who,  it  was  said, 
sought  to  lure  us  on  to  the  destruction  that  certainly  awaited 
us.  Possibly  these  stories  may  have  helped  to  sell  the 
newspapers  in  which  they  appeared  :  they  certainly  amused 
the  brave  men  it  was  then  my  good  fortune  to  command. 
Had  the  silly  people  who  thus  hoped  to  frighten  us  under- 
stood the  British  and  Canadian  soldiers  under  my  command, 
they  would  have  realized  that  their  one  dread  was  lest  Riel 
should  bolt  without  fighting  when  we  neared  Fort  Garry. 
When  news  came  from  that  station  that  he  and  the  other 
murderers,  his  councillors,  "  meant  business,"  joy  ran  freely 
through  aU  ranks. 

Between  June  i  and  when  our  leading  companies  started 
from  Lake  Shebandowan,  July  i6,  it  had  rained  upon  twenty- 
three  days,  which  was  somewhat  trying  in  the  midst  of  our 
preparations.  But  the  fact  that  those  companies  did  start 
upon  the  day  I  had  long  before  named  for  their  departure 

195 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

made  glad  the  hearts  of  loyal  men  in  Canada,  and  was  taken 
as  a  good  omen  by  all  ranks  of  the  Red  River  force. 

As  this  leading  detachment  pushed  out  from  shore  and 
dipped  their  oars  for  the  first  time  in  the  lake  before  tliem, 
they  raised  the  shout,  "  For  Fort  Garry,"  and  as  it  echoed 
round  those  beautiful  shores  all  ranks  for  the  first  time,  I 
think,  appreciated  the  reality  of  the  operation  before  them. 

When  the  last  detachment  embarked  on  August  2,  this 
little  well-formed  brigade  covered  a  distance  of  150  miles 
from  front  to  rear.  A  rather  long  column  !  I  do  not  believe 
there  were  ever  hardier  or  handier  soldiers  in  every  way  than 
those  who  constituted  it.  They  were  all  carefully  picked 
and  had  already  become  well  seasoned  by  many  weeks  of 
heavy  work.  Their  wants  had  been  carefully  attended  to  : 
all  were  weU  fed  and  had  lived  in  the  open  air  for  the  last 
seven  or  eight  weeks.  With  such  men  all  things  are  possible. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at  that  I  laughed  at  the 
many  warnings  of  impending  misfortunes  that  "  the  well- 
informed  "  hurled  at  me.  I  was  assured  that  my  column 
should  be  three  times  as  strong  as  it  was  :  that  Riel  and  his 
ferocious  half-breeds  would  destroy  it  on  some  carefully 
selected  portage.  In  fact,  we  were  warned  that  the  fate  of 
General  Braddock  and  his  troops  awaited  us.  I  doubt 
whether  any  British  force  ever  began  so  serious  an  under- 
taking under  blacker  prophecies  of  impending  disaster,which 
in  some  instances  seemed  meant  as  threats.  It  was  stoutly 
affirmed  that  we  should  be  devoured  by  mosquitoes  and 
other  venomous  flies,  which  drove  even  the  Indians  from  the 
woods  in  July,  where  the  heat  was  then  stifling  :  that  the 
Chippewahs  would  compel  us  to  pay  large  sums  for  going 
through  their  country,  that  the  passage  by  their  rivers  could 
only  be  made  in  birch-bark  canoes  manned  by  skilled  Indians. 

196 


THE    WORK    IN    CROSSING   A    PORTAGE 

It  seemed  to  me  that  what  annoyed  those  angry  monitors 
most  was  not  that  their  advice  was  not  followed,  but  that 
they  were  not  invited  either  "  to  boss  the  show  "  or  even  to 
take  any  part  whatever  in  its  plans  or  proceedings.  When 
it  was  first  talked  of,  they  scoffed  at  the  proposal  that  any 
British  or  Militia  battalions  should  be  sent  in  great  boats 
over  rivers  where  none  but  Indians  and  the  most  practised 
voyageurs  had  previously  dared  to  venture.  They  said  we 
had  all  gone  mad,  and  that  I  was  the  greatest  lunatic  of  the 
lot :  that  I  might  be  a  good  soldier,  but  I  was  an  idiot  upon 
all  matters  connected  with  canoes  and  river  work.  The  fact 
that  I  had  been  six  or  seven  years  in  Canada,  and  had  been  a 
good  deal  in  the  woods,  was  ignored.  In  fine,  we  were  looked 
upon  as  men  whom  the  gods  having  doomed  to  destruction 
had  first  made  mad. 

I  may  here  conveniently  describe  the  crossing  of  a  portage 
by  a  company.  It  was  the  same  process  in  all  instances,  the 
only  difference  being  in  the  length  of  the  portage.  Some 
were  not  more  than  one  or  two  hundred  yards  in  length, 
whilst  a  few  were  over  a  mile.  The  relative  difficulties  of 
portages — all  other  things  being  equal — are  in  direct  ratio 
to  the  square  of  their  length.  From  the  description  which  I 
give  of  this  one  operation,  the  reader  will  learn  the  story  of 
all,  as  the  work  at  each  portage  was  alike  in  character ; 
the  one  exception  being  that  made  by  the  leading  company 
which  had  imposed  upon  it  the  opening  out  of  aU  the  portages 
and  the  cutting  down  and  laying  the  rollers  along  them. 
The  poplar  of  about  six  or  eight  inches  in  diameter  made  the 
best  roUers,  as  the  boats  could  be  hauled  most  easily  over 
their  soft  and  juicy  bark.  As  a  rule  when  each  company 
reached  a  portage  the  company  immediately  in  front  had 
not  yet  quite  cleared  away  from  it.     But  until  aU  the  stores 

197 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

of  the  company  in  possession  of  the  portage  had  been  taken 
across,  the  newly  arrived  company  was  no  t  allowed  to  begin 
discharging  provisions,  etc.,  etc.  This  rule  was  necessary 
in  order  to  avoid  mixing  the  stores  of  the  two  companies. 
The  labour  of  hauling  across  our  boats  and  of  carrying  the 
sacks  and  barrels  of  provisions,  all  ammunition  and 
stores  contained  in  each  was  very  great.  Some  of  the 
portages  were  very  rocky,  others  excessively  steep,  and  some 
of  considerable  height  and  very  long.  As  soon  as  each  boat 
was  launched  into  the  smooth  water  above  or  below  the 
portage,  as  the  case  might  be,  its  crew  reloaded  it,  and  when 
aU  was  ready  the  men  embarked  and  pulled  off  a  little  to 
make  room  for  the  next  boat  on  the  portage.  When  all  the 
boats  had  been  taken  across  and  reloaded,  the  captain's 
boat  pulled  away  for  the  next  portage,  his  other  boats  follow- 
ing as  near  together  as  possible.  The  boats  of  each  company 
kept  together  throughout,  so  each  company  was  the  small 
integer  of  the  expeditionary  force.  I  usually  travelled  a 
little  ahead  with  the  best  guide  and  "  blazed  "  the  remark- 
able trees  as  I  went  along  to  mark  the  direction  that  should 
be  taken  by  all  behind  to  lead  them  to  the  next  portage. 
It  was  astonishing  to  see  how  handy  at  all  boatwork  our 
men  soon  became. 


198 


CHAPTER    XL 
Hear  of  the  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon's  Downfall 

EVERY  boat  carried  a  bell-tent  for  the  use  of  those  in 
it.  But  tents  were  seldom  pitched,  as  we  worked 
daily  until  sunset,  when  we  landed  to  cook  our  evening  meal, 
and  when  it  was  eaten  the  time  had  come  for  sleep  until  we 
resumed  the  oar  next  morning  at  daybreak.  I  cannot 
remember  having  slept  in  a  tent  during  the  journey  except 
for  the  two  nights  I  spent  at  Fort  Francis  and  the  night 
before  we  occupied  Fort  Garry.  During  our  long  journey 
I  was  asleep  one  night  upon  a  short  portage.  It  was  pitch 
dark,  for  the  rain  poured  in  torrents.  I  was  very  wet,  and 
as  I  dozed  with  the  rain  splashing  in  my  face  I  heard  the 
sound  of  a  paddle  in  the  water  close  by.  I  jumped  up, 
feeling  certain  it  was  my  weekly  post  canoe,  and  so  it  was. 
A  lanthorn  was  lit  by  my  good  friend  and  A.D.C.,  young 
Fred  Denison,  of  the  Governor-General's  bodyguard,  who 
was  soon  busily  employed  in  opening  the  sealed  letter-bag. 
The  latest  telegram  contained  the  startling  news  that  the 
French  army  had  been  destroyed  or  taken  prisoners  at 
Sedan,  and  that  the  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon  had  surren- 
dered and  was  a  prisoner  in  the  German  camp.  I  trans- 
lated the  telegram  into  French  for  the  voyageurs  about  me, 
but  they  refused  to  believe  it.  They  could  not  realize  that 
the  land  of  their  proudest  and  most  cherished  traditions 

199 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

could  be  thus  humbled  in  the  dust  and  struck  down  from  the 
high  position  it  had  previously  held  amongst  nations.  They 
had  been  brought  up  in  the  faith  that  the  French  were  the 
greatest  people  in  Europe.  Their  honest,  if  sentimental,  love 
for  "  La  Belle  France  "  was  most  touching,  and  raised  them 
much  in  my  esteem.  Well,  indeed,  might  some  modern 
psalmist  who  had  witnessed  that  curious  scene  in  the  wilds 
of  the  Canadian  forest  have  recorded  how  those  brave  and 
feeling  voyageurs,  as  they  laid  themselves  down  that  night, 
wept  as  they  thought  of  the  former  greatness  of  the  land  of 
their  forefathers  and  realized  its  then  fallen  and  forlorn 
state. 

Before  leaving  Montreal  for  Lake  Superior,  I  received 
this  telegram  from  home.  "  Remember  Butler,  69th  Regi- 
ment." I  had  made  that  officer's  acquaintance  when  his 
battalion  was  quartered  at  Montreal  in  the  following  way. 
Every  summer  some  half-dozen  regimental  officers  were 
employed  on  a  military  survey  of  the  frontier  between 
Canada  and  the  United  States.  With  a  view  to  obtain  good 
men  for  this  special  service  a  general  order  was  published 
each  year,  that  officers  wishing  to  be  so  employed  should 
send  me  specimens  of  their  military  sketches.  Amongst  the 
applicants  in  1868  was  Lieutenant,  now  General,  Sir  William 
Butler.  When  he  came  to  see  me  on  this  business,  I  was 
much  struck  with  the  bright  clearness  of  his  intelligence 
and  with  his  all-round  intellectual  superiority  to  the  general 
run  of  our  officers.  I  inquired  about  him  from  those  who 
knew  him  well,  and  ascertained  that  he  was  not  only  by  far 
the  cleverest  man  in  his  battalion,  but  was  well  known 
generally  for  his  energy  and  varied  talents.  Unable  to 
employ  him  on  this  survey,  I  made  a  note  of  his  name  in  case 
I  should  ever  require  the  services  of  an  officer  who  was 

200 


SIR   WILLIAM    BUTLER 

evidently  a  good  active  talented  and  trustworthy  man. 
I  had  long  been  in  the  habit  of  keeping  a  list  of  the  best  and 
ablest  soldiers  I  knew,  and  was  always  on  the  look-out  for 
those  who  could  safely  be  entrusted  with  any  special  military 
piece  of  work.  Butler  struck  me  as  being  just  such  a  man, 
so  his  name  had  been  duly  recorded  upon  it.  This  telegram 
did  not  therefore  come  from  one  of  whom  I  knew  nothing. 
When  on  my  way  to  Thunder  Bay  he  overtook  me  at 
Toronto.  Up  to  that  time  the  only  information  we  had 
received  from  the  Red  River  territory  had  come  from  un- 
reliable sources.  It  came  either  from  disloyal  French- 
speaking  priests,  who  had  their  own  objects  to  serve,  or 
from  Hudson  Bay  officials,  who  wrote  in  terror  of  their  lives, 
and  in  a  trading  sense  only,  and  lastly  from  the  over-awed 
loyal  minority,  who  feared  to  speak  their  minds  openly, 
dreading  the  consequences  of  any  bold  expression  of  opinion. 
Lieutenant  Butler  was  just  the  man  I  wanted  to  go  round 
through  the  United  States  to  the  Red  River  for  the  purpose 
of  finding  out  how  matters  really  stood  there,  and  then  to 
come  and  meet  me  when  I  had  made  about  half  the  distance 
to  Fort  Garry.  At  Toronto  I  gave  him  a  brief  outline  of 
my  plans,  and  told  him  the  date  I  calculated  upon  for 
reaching  Fort  Francis  at  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River,  where 
it  falls  into  Lake  Winnipeg,  and  lastly,  the  day  upon  which 
I  hoped  to  arrive  at  Fort  Garry.  I  explained  that  I  wanted 
an  able  soldier,  whom  I  could  trust  imphcitly,  to  go  via  the 
United  States  to  the  Red  River  Settlement  to  judge  for  him- 
self as  to  the  condition  of  affairs  there.  I  said  I  required 
information  as  to  what  this  half-breed  rising  meant  ?  Who 
were  at  the  bottom  of  it  ?  Was  Riel  a  puppet  in  the  hands 
of  others,  and  what  were  the  grievances — if  any — of  those 
with  whom  he  acted  ?  and  so  forth.     Knowing  the  time  of 

201 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

my  probable  arrival,  he  was  to  meet  me  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Fort  Francis  upon  the  date  I  told  him  I  hoped  to  reach  it. 

This  roving  commission,  that  required  so  many  rare 
qualities,  was  one  after  his  own  heart,  and  he  was  just  the 
man  to  carry  it  out  admirably.  We  parted  at  Toronto,  both 
bound  for  the  same  destination  but  by  different  routes. 
He  carried  out  his  instructions  in  the  most  satisfactory  way, 
and  met  me  in  the  middle  of  the  great  wild  forest  at  the  place 
and  upon  the  date  I  had  arranged  with  him.  W-Tiat  a 
comfort  it  is  to  have  able  and  determined  men  to  deal  with  ! 
But  it  is  not  easy  to  find  men  of  Sir  WiUiam  Butler's  genius. 
They  are  not  available  at  every  season,  nor  do  they  grow 
on  every  bush.  Since  then  we  have  been  comrades  in  many 
expeditions,  and  I  am  proud  to  reckon  him  amongst  my 
best  and  most  loyal  friends.  In  genius  and  in  inventive 
power,  as  it  can  be  employed  in  aU  the  various  phases  of  war, 
he  is  second  to  none  of  the  able  soldiers  who  have  been  my 
friends  and  associates  throughout  a  long  and  varied  military 
career.  Even  amongst  them,  his  great  imaginative  faculty — 
that  quality  so  rare,  so  much  above  the  other  gifts,  required 
for  excellence  in  military  leaders — marked  him  out  pre- 
eminently. It  is  to  the  apparent  want  of  that  uncommon 
gift  on  the  part  of  commanders,  more  than  to  any  lack  of 
numbers  or  of  guns  or  of  horses,  that  we  must  often  look  for 
the  inordinate  prolongation  of  our  wars.  It  is  imagination, 
educated  by  practical  experience  in  war,  that  enables  the 
commander  to  foresee  what  his  enemy  will  do  under  the 
circumstances  which  any  change  of  policy  may  rapidly 
develop,  so  that  he,  the  commander,  may  be  ready  promptly 
and  effectively  to  checkmate  him. 

Before  starting  for  Thunder  Bay  I  had  sent  a  proclamation 
to  Fort  Garry  addressed  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjoining 

202 


MESSAGE   TO    PROTESTANT   BISHOP 

settlement  telling  them  the  objects  of  my  expedition,  and 
calling  upon  all  loyal  subjects  of  Queen  Victoria  to  assist  me 
in  their  accomplishment.  I  sent  a  covering  letter  with  the 
copy  forwarded  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company's  officer  at 
Fort  Garry,  in  which  I  begged  he  would  do  his  utmost  to 
finish  with  all  speed  the  road  which  some  time  before  had 
been  begun  from  the  north-west  angle  of  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods  to  his  station.  I  had  no  intention  of  using  it,  but 
I  wished  Riel  to  believe  that  I  meant  to  do  so,  in  order  that 
he  might  look  for  me  in  that  locality  and  not  by  the  Winnipeg 
River  and  Fort  Alexander  route  which  I  had  settled  in  my 
own  mind  to  follow.  This  ruse  had  the  desired  effect,  for  I 
learnt  at  Fort  Francis  that  he  had  sent  a  party  of  half-breeds 
to  a  spot  near  where  that  road  reached  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods. 

Before  leaving  Prince  Arthur's  Landing,  I  had  despatched 
a  loyal  and  trustworthy  half-breed  to  the  Red  River  Settle- 
ment via  that  unfinished  road.  His  orders  were  to  meet 
me  at  Fort  Francis  on  July  31  with  the  latest  news  of  the 
rebel  doings.  He  carried  out  this  dangerous  mission  most 
successfully,  and  met  me  as  arranged.  He  had  left  his  home 
near  the  Lower  Fort  on  the  Red  River  on  July  20,  bringing 
rne  letters  from  our  Protestant  Bishop  there  with  valuable 
information  as  to  supplies  and  as  to  the  rebel  proceedings. 
He  said  every  one  in  the  settlement  lived  in  a  state  of  abject 
dread.  The  English  and  French  mutually  distrusted  each 
other,  and  both  feared  the  Indians,  whose  loyalty  had  been 
shaken  by  Riel's  conduct.  But  all  the  messages  I  received 
ended  with  the  same  earnest  appeal  that  I  should  push  on  as 
quickly  as  possible,  for  no  one  could  say  what  a  day  might 
bring  forth. 

Under  the  influence  of  the   French  party  in  Parliament 

203 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

the  Canadian  Government  had  recently  passed  a  Bill  which 
practically  conceded  all  the  half-breeds  in  the  Red  River  had 
demanded.  This  Bill  was  settled  with  the  French  Bishop 
from  Fort  Garry,  who  had  gone  to  Ottawa  for  that  purpose. 

He  strove  his  utmost  to  obtain  an  indemnity  for  his  friend 
Riel  that  would  have  screened  him  from  all  punishment  for 
his  rebellion,  for  having  robbed  the  loyal  party  on  the  Red 
River,  and  for  his  cruel  and  deliberate  murder  of  Mr.  Scott. 
This  scheming  prelate  had  assured  Riel  that  if  he  would  be 
guided  by  him — the  Bishop — he  need  have  no  fear  of  punish- 
ment for  his  crimes,  as  his  influence  at  Ottawa  was  so  power- 
ful that  he  would  certainly  be  able  to  secure  him  from  all 
legal  prosecutions.  But  he  failed  to  accomplish  this  part 
of  his  scheme,  and  was  consequently  much  alarmed  lest 
his  friend,  Riel  the  murderer,  should  upset  the  project  by 
some  attempt  at  resistance. 

The  important  news  I  received  at  Fort  Francis  from 
Lieutenant  WiUiam  Butler  was  that  Riel  was  in  a  perplexed 
state  of  mind,  not  knowing  how  far  he  could  trust  his 
intriguing  Bishop.  When  his  fear  of  the  scaffold  was  some- 
what aUayed  by  the  promised  amnesty,  he  talked  very  big 
of  coming  out  to  welcome  me  to  the  Red  River,  and  hand 
over  to  me  the  government  of  the  country.  His  hesitation 
at  this  moment  lost  him  the  goodwill  and  support  of  many  a 
French  half-breed  and  would-be  rebel.  But  he  stiU  talked 
big  at  times,  and  he  published  proclamations  in  his  own 
name  as  if  he  were  the  undisputed  ruler  of  the  territory. 

At  Fort  Francis  I  learned,  as  I  had  expected,  that  there  was 
no  possibility  of  my  being  able  to  use  the  road  between  the 
north-west  corner  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  Fort  Garry. 
I  had  therefore  no  other  resource  but  to  continue  my  advance 
by  water.     I  should  consequently  have  to  face  the  much 

204 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  LAKE  OF  THE  WOODS 

feared  rapids  of  the  Winnipeg  River,  which  connects  the 
great  lake  of  that  name  with  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  This 
was  the  most  dangerous  part  of  our  journey,  and  which  I 
most  dreaded. 

In  crossing  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  we  came  in  for  stormy 
weather,  and  the  waves  were  high  at  times,  when  white 
horses  broke  into  drifting  spray.  It  is  much  crowded  with 
islands,  and  as  no  good  map  had  ever  been  made  of  it  many 
of  our  companies  lost  their  way.  My  boat,  as  usual,  was 
some  distance  in  front,  and  I  went  astray  several  times  in 
long  reaches  from  which  there  was  no  outlet  but  that  by 
which  I  had  entered  them.  This  was  very  annoying,  and 
the  romantic  scenery  of  trees  and  rocks,  of  earth  and  water, 
in  all  their  varied  and  picturesque  combinations,  did  not 
soothe  my  annoyance  at  the  delays  thus  occasioned.  And 
yet  as  I  now  think  of  those  brightly  beautiful  and  wooded 
inlets,  of  their  great  stretches  of  yellow  sand,  of  their  many 
steep  and  pink-tinted  cliffs  and  lichen-covered  rocks,  often 
pictured  as  it  were  in  a  looking  glass  upon  the  lake  below,  I 
long  at  times  to  revisit  those  beautiful  scenes  ;  to  lie  upon 
their  deep,  tufted  moss  and  think  of  an  eventful  life,  and 
dream  of  the  might  have  been. 

When  I  passed  there  silence  reigned  supreme.  The  dip 
of  the  paddle  at  regular  intervals  and  the  occasional  weird 
whistle  of  the  loon  were  the  only  sounds  we  heard.  There, 
indeed,  at  that  time,  the  man  wearied  of  life's  mockeries 
might  revel  in  the  exquisite  sensation  of  being  alone  and  far 
away  from  the  noisy  and  vulgar  whirl  of  civilization. 

The  great  water-basin  of  which  this  Lake  of  the  Woods 
is  an  important  feature,  drains  into  Lake  Winnipeg  by  the 
splendid  river  of  that  name.  That  river  bursts  from  the 
former  lake  by  several  rocky  channels,  and  rushing  and 

205 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

roaring  as  it  tumbles  into  a  great  seething  basin  below, 
re-unites  there.  These  channels  form  several  small  but 
extremely  picturesque  little  islands,  upon  one  of  which 
stands  the  Hudson  Bay  Post  of  Rat  Portage.  It  consists 
of  a  few  log  houses  surrounded  by  high  wooden  palisades. 
It  is  a  sweet  spot  amidst  the  spray  and  roaring  noise  of  the 
mighty  river  rushing  by  it. 

What  a  strange  and  lonely  existence  is  led  by  the  few  white 
men  at  these  isolated  posts  !  Most  of  them  were  of  North 
British  origin,  a  large  proportion  coming  from  the  Orkney 
Islands.  Honest,  hard-working  men  inured  from  childhood 
to  a  rough  mode  of  life,  they  made  excellent  servants  for  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  in  their  distant  possessions.  The 
best  come  to  the  top  and  become  eventually  leading  men 
in  the  Company's  business,  many  growing  rich,  some  of  them 
extremely  wealthy.  The  gentleman  in  charge  at  Rat  Portage 
was  a  half-breed  married  to  a  squaw  and  had  been  there  for 
thirteen  years.  He  was  weU  educated,  had  read  much,  and 
could  talk  pleasantly  of  what  he  knew. 

I  took  a  great  interest  in  the  Company's  affairs  at  that 
time,  and  during  my  short  halt  under  his  hospitable  roof  I 
learnt  much  regarding  their  dealings  with  the  Indians.  No 
promise  made  to  them  is  ever  broken  in  the  smallest  par- 
ticular, a  fact  which  I  hope  may  have  taught  them  a  good 
lesson,  and  which  had  certainly  enabled  the  Company  to 
trade  successfully  with  them  for  the  last  two  centuries. 
Each  post  was  a  little  centre  of  Christianity,  and  although 
no  attempt  at  proselytism  was  made,  the  Gospel  virtues  of 
truth  and  honest  dealing  between  man  and  man  were  taught 
by  example.  I  invariably  looked  over  the  books  possessed 
by  those  in  charge  of  these  posts.  There  was  always  a  ' 
Bible,  a  Shakespeare  and  a  few  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  novels. 

206 


THE    INDIANS    VERY    CONSERVATIVE 

But,  oh  !  how  dreary  must  have  been  their  winters,  cut  off 
from  all  communication  with  civilization,  and  with  very  little 
to  occupy  either  mind  or  body. 

It  was  curious  to  examine  the  articles  sent  to  such  posts 
for  barter  with  the  Indians.  The  latter  are  very  conser- 
vative by  instinct.  If  they  have  become  accustomed  to  an 
article  of  a  certain  size,  shape  or  colour,  these  sons  of 
Hiawatha  wiU  buy  no  other.  For  many  generations  they 
had  bought  long  swallow-tailed  coats  of  fine  blue  cloth  with 
brass  buttons,  and  would  not  look  at  any  other  pattern.  In 
this  neighbourhood  there  was  practically  no  game,  so  the 
Indians  lived  upon  fish.  Sturgeon  in  great  quantity 
abounded  in  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  and  was  excellent 
eating. 

The  country  we  had  passed  through  between  Thunder  Bay 
and  Fort  Francis  was  a  wild  rocky  desert,  but  covered 
wherever  the  pine  can  grow  with  poor  stunted  trees.  There 
was  very  little  soil  anywhere,  seldom  enough  to  hold  a 
tent-peg,  but  I  was  never  in  any  country  that  supplied  the 
traveller  with  a  more  comfortable  bivouac.  With  a  blanket 
wrapped  round  the  body,  it  was  easy  to  sleep  soundly  on  the 
deep,  soft,  and  springy  moss  that  abounded  everywhere. 
It  was  indeed  a  rare  thing  to  see  a  tent  pitched  on  any 
portage  between  Thunder  Bay  and  Fort  Garry.  At  the 
former  place  we  had  come  in  for  a  rich  crop  of  wild  rasp- 
berries, and  during  our  subsequent  journey  the  blueberries 
made  a  good  dessert  to  the  Company's  mess  of  salt  pork  and 
biscuit. 

During  the  journey  to  Fort  Francis  we  seldom  had  a 
favourable  wind,  and  had  consequently  to  depend  entirely 
upon  our  oars.  The  easterly  breeze  that  would  have  helped 
us  on  many  a  lake  and  river  would,  however,  have  brought 

207 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

more  rain,  of  which  we  already  had  an  ample  supply. 
Though  we  had  very  wet  bivouacs  we  always  had  good  fires, 
for  there  was  plenty  of  wood  to  burn  everywhere,  and  the 
soldier  knows  what  that  means  to  him  when  in  the  field. 
Our  daily  routine  was  :  "  ReveiUe  "  at  the  first  streak  of 
daylight,  often  before  it.  This  was  always  followed  by  the 
shout  of  "  Fort  Garry,"  the  shibboleth  of  our  expedition. 
If  any  tents  had  been  pitched  they  were  struck  at  once,  and 
stowed  away  in  the  boats.  All  hands  were  soon  hard  at 
work  with  their  oars,  and  this  continued  until  about  8  a.m., 
when  there  was  an  hour's  halt  for  breakfast.  At  i  p.m.  we 
halted  for  another  hour  for  dinner,  and  about  6  or  7  p.m. 
the  day's  work  came  to  an  end.  In  about  a  week  all  became 
expert  in  the  art  of  making  a  good  fire  and  in  cooking 
rapidly.  It  was  surprising  how  quickly  our  soldiers  became 
handy  at  all  kinds  of  forest  work.  But  their  appearance 
would  have  horrified  any  home  service  Adjutant.  Their 
clothes  generally  were  much  torn,  and  some  were  very 
ragged  from  the  loads  all  ranks  carried  on  their  backs  ;  the 
seats  of  their  trousers  were  in  a  disastrous  condition,  the 
best  of  them  being  patched  with  the  rough  sacking  of  the 
empty  biscuit  sacks,  and  the  hands,  arms,  faces  and  necks 
of  men  and  officers  were  as  brown  as  those  of  the  darkest 
coloured  Ojibbewah.  When  bathing  all  ranks  presented  a 
magpie  appearance,  with  head,  neck  and  hands  nearly  black, 
in  marked  contrast  with  the  white  skin  of  their  bodies. 

No  one  ever  fell  sick.  I  was  asked  to  have  our  senior 
doctor  promoted  when  the  expedition  came  to  an  end,  but 
refused,  because  he  had  had  nothing  to  do,  there  never 
having  been  any  sick  for  him  to  cure. 

How  can  I  do  justice  to  the  cheery  pluck,  endurance  and 
good  humour  of  the  rank  and  file  of  that  brigade  ?     They 

208 


THE  BRITISH    AND    COLONIAL    OFFICER 

had  had  much  to  bear  with  during  the  journey,  but  the 
greatest  disappointment  was  that  of  having  had  no  fight 
at  the  end  of  it.  They  bore  it  with  resignation,  but  it  was 
a  galling  disappointment,  for  all  ranks  were  keenly  anxious 
to  pitch  into  those  cruel  half-breed  rebels,  and  longed  to  hang 
Riel  on  the  spot  where  he  had  murdered  the  unoffending 
Mr.  Scott. 

Of  what  an  adaptable  nature  is  the  British  and  Colonial 
officer!  He  throws  so  much  energy  into  whatever  reaUy 
hard  work  he  may  have  to  do  that  somehow  or  other  he  gets 
through  the  most  difficult  and  complicated  jobs  with  credit, 
owing  mainly,  I  think,  to  his  deep  sense  of  public  duty  and  of 
what,  as  a  gentleman,  he  feels  he  owes  to  the  State.  His  train- 
ing, his  field  sports  and  usual  amusements,  fit  him  to  lead 
our  men  better  than  any  other  class  could  do.  When  there  is 
hard  work  to  be  done  aU  those  good  qualities  appear  which 
make  him  the  best  man  to  lead  others.  During  this  expedi- 
tion our  officers  carried  barrels  of  pork  and  other  loads  as 
their  men  did  over  the  portages.  There  was  the  truest  com- 
radeship between  them  and  their  men,  whilst  discipline,  as 
we  understand  that  high  virtue,  was  strictly  maintained. 

At  Rat  Portage  I  received  further  letters  from  our  English 
bishop  in  the  Red  River  Settlement,  giving  me  the  latest 
news  from  that  place.  He  and  the  English-speaking  people 
there  had  also  sent  me  what  I  stood  most  in  need  of,  I  mean 
really  good  and  reliable  guides.  Without  their  help  I  must 
have  lost  many  men  in  descending  the  Winnipeg,  that  most 
difficult  and  dangerous  of  Canadian  rivers.  They  came 
under  the  command  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gardner,  an  English 
clergyman,  and  their  arrival  was  an  outward  and  visible 
proof  that  there  did  exist  in  that  far-off  settlement  an  active 
party  of  loyal  men.     Of  course,  I  eagerly  questioned  these 

VOL.  II.  209  p 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

guides  about  our  route  down  the  Winnipeg  River,  and  their 
answers  would  have  terrified  any  whose  hearts  were  not  as 
stout  as  were  those  who  had  come  there  with  me  from 
Thunder  Bay.  Looking  back  now  at  the  events  of  our 
exciting  journey  I  feel  that  had  not  all  ranks  been  as  well 
broken-in  to  working  in  the  difficult  and  dangerous  waters 
we  had  already  so  successfully  surmounted,  our  descent  of  the 
Winnipeg  River  would  have  been  impossible,  indeed  out  of 
the  question.  When  those  skilled  voyageurs  saw  the  boats 
we  had  come  in  they  were  struck  dumb  with  astonishment, 
and  evidently  thought  us  a  mad  lot  to  think  of  facing  the 
river  then  before  us  in  any  such  craft.  They  soon  realized, 
however,  not  only  that  we  meant  to  face  it,  but  that  there 
was  no  use  in  trying  to  dissuade  us  from  what  they  were 
pleased  to  style  a  rash,  a  wild  venture.  They  plainly  told 
me  that  none  but  those  who  were  not  only  thoroughly 
skilled  and  experienced  in  canoes,  but  also  well  acquainted 
with  the  Winnipeg,  would  attempt  its  navigation  at  all. 

This  was  one  of  the  many  occasions  in  my  life  when  I  have 
found  it  to  be  popularly  supposed  that  though  the  British 
soldier  is  on  aU  hands  admitted  to  be  brave  and  trustworthy 
as  a  fighting  man,  he  is  not  thought  to  be  of  much  use  in  any 
other  capacity — in  fact,  that  he  is  not  a  "  handy  man." 
A  lengthened  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  him  in  all 
climates,  under  an  infinite  variety  of  circumstances  and  of 
sore  trials  by  land  and  water  in  moments  of  extreme  danger, 
in  cold  and  in  misery,  enables  and  justifies  me,  and  in  fact 
caUs  upon  me,  to  give  these  statements  an  unqualified  denial. 
Of  course,  he  is  very  much  what  he  is  made  and  as  he  is 
taught  by  his  officers,  and  I  would  strongly  advise  the 
Captain  of  a  Company  who  finds  his  men  fail  him  in 
any  moments  of  extreme  danger  or  other  trial,  to  resign 

2IO 


THE    QUALITY    OF    OUR    SOLDIERS 

his  commission.  His  is  the  fault,  and  he  is  not  fit  to  com- 
mand British  soldiers.  If  he  were  "the  right  sort," 
his  men  would  never  fail  him  ;  if  he  knew  his  work  and 
had  properly  trained  and  taught  those  under  him,  he 
would  not  have  to  complain  of  them  in  any  hour  of  trial. 

I  found  it  to  be  the  common  idea  aU  along  the  route  we 
travelled  from  Toronto  to  Fort  Garry,  that  our  men  and 
officers  could  not  carry  loads  over  portages,  nor  perform  any 
arduous  labour.  But  I  know  also  that  we  left  behind  us, 
upon  the  minds  of  all  who  saw  us  at  work  upon  any  of  the 
many  portages  we  crossed,  a  very  different  impression. 
When  I  refer  to  the  manly  virtue  of  the  British  soldier,  of 
course  I  include  the  splendid  soldiers  of  Canada  under  that 
general  designation.  Indeed,  in  some  respects  they  are 
better  than  our  Regulars,  for,  owing  to  their  colonial  bring- 
ing-up,  they  have  more  initiative,  and  are  more  self-reliant. 

I  had  calculated  that  each  Company  would  take  ten  days 
from  Rat  Portage  to  Fort  Alexander,  which  is  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Winnipeg  River,  and  below  all  its  thirty  falls  and 
rapids.  The  difference  in  level  between  these  two  places  is 
340  feet,  and  the  distance  some  160  miles.  When,  therefore, 
the  party  from  the  Red  River  Settlement  assured  me  it 
would  take  double  that  time  I  was  much  put  out.  I  had 
long  fixed  upon  August  23  as  the  date  upon  which  I  should 
reach  Fort  Garry,  but  if  these  practised  voyageurs  were 
correct  I  should  not  be  there  until  September  2  at  earliest. 
But  I  hoped  they  had  erred  in  their  estimate  from  not 
knowing  what  the  men  of  my  Brigade  could  do.  This  was 
a  serious  matter,  as  the  Regular  troops  had  to  get  back  to 
Montreal  over  the  same  route  before  the  frost  set  in  on  the 
Height  of  Land  which  forms  the  water-shed  between  the 
Red  River  and  Thunder  Bay. 

211 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S   LIFE 

No  one  who  has  ever  descended  the  Winnipeg  River  in 
boat  or  canoe  is  ever  hkely  to  forget  that  experience.  As 
for  myself,  the  falls,  the  rapids,  the  whirlpools,  the  great 
rushing  angry  waters,  and  the  many  hair-breadth  escapes 
its  navigation  involved,  are  indelibly  stamped  upon  my 
memory.  We  had  one  or  two  boats  wrecked,  but  no  life 
was  lost.  The  pleasurable  excitement  of  danger  is  always 
an  agreeable  experience,  but  the  enthralling  delight  of 
feeling  your  frail  canoe  or  boat  bound  under  you,  as  it  were, 
down  a  steep  incline  of  wildly  rushing  waters  into  what  looks 
like  a  boiling,  steaming  cauldron  of  bubbling  and  confused 
waters,  exceeds  most  of  the  other  maddening  delights  that 
man  can  dream  of.  Each  man  strains  for  his  life  at  oar  or 
paddle,  for  no  steerage-way  can  be  kept  upon  your  boat 
unless  it  be  made  to  run  quicker  than  the  water.  All 
depends  upon  the  nerve  and  skill  of  the  bowsman  and  steers- 
man, who  take  you  skilfully  through  the  outcropping  rocks 
around  you.  But  the  acme  of  excitement  is  of  short 
duration,  and  the  pace  is  too  quick  to  admit  of  self-examina- 
tion. No  words  can  describe  the  rapid  change  of  sensation 
when  the  boat  jumps  through  the  last  narrow  and  perhaps 
twisted  passage  between  rocks,  into  an  eddy  of  the  slack 
water  below  !  You  had — perhaps  unknowingly — held  your 
breath,  whilst  every  nerve  was  nigh  to  breaking  point,  during 
the  moments  of  supreme  danger ;  but  in  a  few  seconds  of 
time  afterwards  a  long  breath  of  relief  comes  that  enables 
you  to  say,  "  Thank  God  !  "  with  all  heartfelt  sincerity. 

I  made  the  descent  of  the  Winnipeg  River  in  a  birch-bark 
canoe  manned  by  Irroquois  Indians,  the  most  daring  and 
skilful  of  Canadian  voyageurs.  The  Slave  Falls  is  one  of  the 
most  beautifully  impressive  pieces  of  water  in  that  rapidly 
running  river.     The  portage  by  which  travellers  descending 

212 


THE    SLAVE    FALLS 

this  river  take  their  canoes  round  these  falls  begins  some 
few  hundred  yards  above  them,  and  is  reached  without 
danger.  But  to  my  horror  the  guide  took  my  canoe  into 
midstream,  where  the  current  runs  down  a  considerable 
decline  at  a  most  exciting  pace.  My  first  wild  notion  was 
that  he  had  mistaken  these  falls  for  some  others,  and  that 
nothing  then  could  save  us.  I  sat  motionless,  speechless 
and  awe-stricken  as  we  raced  along  the  last  and  swiftest 
decline  into  the  column  of  mist  and  spray,  which  rising  from 
below  seemed  to  mark  the  point  where  the  water  jumped 
from  the  edge  of  the  falls  into  the  steaming  frothing  jumble 
of  bubbling  foam  and  boisterous  waters  below.  My  bows- 
man  was  a  portly  Irroquois  whom  I  did  not  like  much,  but 
he  had  a  jowl  that  bespoke  courageous  determination  to  a 
remarkable  degree.  As  he  dipped  his  broad  paddle  far  out 
into  the  stream  upon  one  side  to  draw  the  canoe  hard  over 
after  it,  he  had,  like  most  Indians  when  excited,  thrown  off 
his  hat,  and  as  his  long  straight  black  hair  flew  back  behind 
his  neck  and  shoulders,  I  saw  his  face  clearly.  It  was 
enough.  His  lips  were  closely  pressed  together,  and  there 
was  an  unmistakable  expression  of  satisfied  determination, 
of  assured  triumph,  about  him  that  said  without  words,  "  AU 
is  weU."  In  less  time  than  it  has  taken  to  write  this,  the 
bow  turned  sharp  in  towards  the  shore,  and  the  canoe  was 
in  fairly  slack  water,  where  two  of  the  crew  jumping  out  held 
her  secure.  My  bowsman,  throwing  his  broad  paddle  into 
the  air  and  catching  it  again,  gave  a  shout  of  victory,  and  all 
the  crew  burst  out  into  hilarious  and  triumphant  laughter. 
Nothing  could  have  saved  us  from  destruction  had  that 
paddle  broken  when  he  held  on  to  it  in  the  current — as  if  it 
were  a  fixed  iron  pillar — to  draw  the  canoe's  head  in  towards 
shore.     Nothing  pleases  or  satisfies  these  Irroquois  more 

213 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

than  such  trials  of  strength,  such  victories  over  dangerous 
water,  which  is  truly  their  element.  I  suppose  that  by  this 
time  the  tribe  exists  no  longer  as  the  most  daring  and  skilful 
of  men  in  all  river  navigation.  The  enervating  effect  of  civi- 
lization and  whiskey  upon  even  the  best  of  uneducated  races 
soon  robs  them  of  courage  and  of  all  other  manly  virtues. 

I  reached  Fort  Alexander  on  August  i8,  and  by  the  20th 
all  the  regulars  of  the  brigade  had  assembled  there.  There 
was  not  a  sick  or  ailing  man  amongst  them.  All  looked  the 
picture  of  health  and  of  soldierlike  bearing,  though  heavy 
rain  had  given  them  wet  bivouacs  thirteen  out  of  those 
twenty  days  in  August. 

The  news  from  Fort  Garry  was  that  Kiel  had  called  his 
followers  together,  and  that  600  of  them  had  answered  the 
summons.  He  had  endeavoured  to  organize  them  to  resist 
us,  but  he  was  not  able  to  imbue  them  with  any  fighting 
ardour.  He  was  still  much  troubled  in  mind  about  an 
amnesty,  but  the  Ottawa  Government  dared  not  grant  it, 
and  even  if  they  had,  I  assume  that  the  Governor,  Lord 
Lisgar,  would  not  have  sanctioned  any  such  outrageous 
proceeding.  As  in  all  previous  correspondence,  the  loyal 
inhabitants  besought  me  to  advance  without  delay.  On 
the  whole,  the  general  tenor  of  the  news  indicated  that  Kiel 
would  fight.  That  cheered  our  men's  hearts.  We  waited 
until  the  following  afternoon,  Sunday,  August  21,  in  the 
hope  that  the  two  leading  companies  of  militia  might  arrive 
in  time  to  go  on  with  us  to  Fort  Garry.  I  was  most  anxious 
to  have  some  of  them  with  me  when  I  attacked  Riel,  should 
he  decide  to  fight,  but  I  confess  I  did  not  believe  that  either 
he  or  his  followers  would  dare  to  do  so. 

The  afternoon  of  Sunday,  August  21,  was  very  fine  when 
our  little  fleet  of  fifty  boats,  manned  by  regular  soldiers,  set 

214 


ON    LAKE    WINNIPEG 

sail  for  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River.  We  halted  for  the 
night  in  a  lovely  and  well-wooded  bay  on  Lake  Winnipeg, 
our  boats  drawn  up  in  close  order  upon  its  sandy  shore. 
What  an  interesting  picture  our  bivouac  was  when  viewed 
from  the  high  bank  where  I  established  myself  for  the  night ! 
Our  fires  lit  up  the  evening  sky,  and  the  temperature  was 
that  of  a  summer  evening  in  the  south  of  Europe.  The  next 
morning  we  steered  for  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River,  where 
it  joins  Lake  Winnipeg.^  That  lake  is  often  very  stormy  and 
its  great  waves  detained  the  leading  companies  of  militia, 
and  prevented  them,  to  my  regret,  from  entering  Fort  Garry 
with  me.  As  we  neared  the  Red  River  I  was  struck  with  the 
great  contrast  between  its  scenery  and  the  rich  beauty  of 
the  land  and  water  we  had  just  left  behind  us.  Not  a  tree 
was  to  be  seen,  only  great  alluvial  flats  covered  with  reeds 
and  rushes,  from  whose  recesses  the  wild-duck  in  vast 
numbers  quacked  out  a  loud  greeting  as  we  passed.  We 
landed  for  dinner  at  a  small  Indian  encampment.  Its 
inhabitants  fired  their  guns  to  do  us  honour,  and  a  few 
presents  to  their  chief  soon  converted  them  into  helpful 
friends.  They  manned  a  smaU  canoe  which  started  with  a 
half-breed  for  the  lower  or  Stone  Fort  on  the  river  and 
carried  messages  from  me  to  the  Hudson  Bay  officer  in 
charge  there.  I  had  been  overtaken  on  the  Winnipeg  River 
by  Mr.  Smith,  now  Lord  Strathcona,  who  was  then  the 
Governor  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  From  him  I 
received  every  possible  help.  Indeed,  it  was  by  his  orders 
that  aU  his  Company's  officials  assisted  us  from  first  to  last 

^  To  give  my  reader  an  idea  of  its  size  I  would  remark  that 
its  area  is  about  9,000  square  miles  and  that  it  drains  some  400,000 
square  mtles  of  country.  It  is  very  shallow,  however,  having  only 
an  average  depth  of  from  six  to  eight  feet.     It  is  said  to  be  filling  up. 

215 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

to  the  best  of  their  abihty.  His  word  was  law  in  those 
regions.  The  garrison  of  two  battahons  that  I  left  behind 
at  Fort  Garry  when  I  started  upon  my  return  journey  to 
Montreal,  owed  much  of  their  comfort  during  the  following 
long  winter  months  to  his  kindness.  He  did  all  he  could  to 
provide  for  their  wants. 

Dinner  over,  we  rowed  in  three  lines  of  boats  up  the  river, 
our  6-pounder  guns  in  the  leading  line,  and  all  men  ready 
for  action  at  any  moment.  We  had  the  wind  against  us,  so 
we  did  not  reach  the  Lower  Fort  that  evening  as  I  had  hoped. 

Upon  landing  for  the  night,  the  chief  of  the  Swampy 
Indians,  who  inhabit  that  locality,  paid  me  a  "  visit  of  cere- 
mony." He  knew  we  had  started  from  Lake  Superior,  but 
no  further  news  of  us  had  lately  reached  the  Settlement. 
Until  he  had  seen  our  boats  coming  round  the  river  bend 
he  was  not  aware  that  even  our  leading  detachment  had 
reached  Fort  Alexander.  The  Hudson  Bay  officer  from  the 
Lower  Fort,  who  arrived  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  corro- 
borated this  statement.  He  reported  that  the  Fort  Garry 
people  did  not  expect  us  so  soon,  and  beyond  the  fact  that 
some  of  our  boats  had  been  seen  by  Indians  on  the  Lake  of 
the  Woods,  our  doings  and  whereabouts  were  unknown  to 
them. 

We  reached  the  Lower  Fort  next  morning,  August  23,  for 
breakfast,  our  advance  having  had  much  of  the  triumphal 
procession  about  it.  As  we  neared  it,  the  people  turned  out 
and  cheered  us  heartily.  All  the  churches  below  Fort 
Garry  were  then  Protestant,  and  their  bells  now  rang  out  a 
joyful  greeting.  As  we  passed  the  Indian  camps,  the  occu- 
pants of  every  wigwam  came  bounding  out  to  fire  a  salute 
in  honour  of  the  Great  Queen's  soldiers.  When  we  reached 
the  Stone  Fort,  the  Union  Jack  was  run  up^by  the  servants 

216 


A  VERY  WET  BIVOUAC 

of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  as  I  landed  joy  was 
written  on  the  face  of  everyone.  All  loyal  men  had  suffered 
much  at  the  hands  of  Riel,  and  terror  had  seized  upon  them. 
His  murder  of  Mr.  Scott  had  had  the  effect  he  desired  upon 
the  loyal  section  of  the  community,  for  each  man  in  it 
believed  that  his  life  also  might  be  sacrificed  at  any  moment, 
and  remained  quiet  in  consequence. 

By  discharging  all  my  surplus  stores  at  the  Stone  Fort,  I 
lightened  our  boats  considerably.  I  took  possession  of  all 
the  carts  and  ponies  I  could  find,  and  thus  mounted  a 
number  of  the  Royal  Rifles,  who  marched  on  both  banks  of 
the  river  to  cover  the  advance  upon  Fort  Garry  next  day, 
and  protect  our  boats  from  surprise.  Unhappily,  the  wind 
was  against  us  all  day,  so  our  progress  with  oars  alone  and 
against  the  current  was  very  slow.  To  my  extreme  regret 
I  was  unable  to  reach  Riel's  headquarters  before  darkness 
set  in,  and  had  to  bivouac  for  the  night  within  six  miles  of 
them.  All  ranks  were  much  cheered  by  the  "  shave  "  that 
ran  hke  wildfire  from  boat  to  boat  that  night,  that  we  were 
to  have  a  fight  next  morning.  But  heavy  rain  with  all  its 
depressing  effects  at  such  a  moment,  came  pouring  down  upon 
us  soon  after  nightfall.  We  had  looked  forward  to  at  least 
a  pretty  little  field  day  when  our  line  of  skirmishers  should 
enclose  Fort  Garry  and  its  rebel  garrison,  as  in  a  net.  But 
by  early  dawn  next  morning  the  whole  country,  far  and 
near,  was  a  sea  of  deep  and  clinging  mud.  There  was  then 
nothing  approaching  a  road  in  the  whole  territory,  so  I  had 
to  forego  all  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war  in  my  final 
advance  and  had  once  more  to  take  to  our  boats  and  the 
dreary  oar.  We  were  all  wet  through,  very  cold  and 
extremely  cross  and  hungry.  A  cup  of  hot  tea  and  a  biscuit 
swallowed  quickly  for  breakfast,  and  all  were  again  at  the 

217 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

oar  by  6  a.m.,  August  24,  1870.  The  rain  poured  "  in 
buckets  "  upon  us,  and  at  places  the  country  was  under 
water.  As  we  neared  the  cathedral  of  the  English  bishop, 
the  Union  Jack  was  loosed  from  its  steeple  as  an  evidence 
to  aU  people  that  the  rebel  rule  had  ceased  and  that  our 
Queen's  authority  was  once  more  paramount  there. 

I  landed  at  Point  Douglas,  only  two  miles  from  Fort 
Garry,  by  road,  but  six  by  the  river,  which  there  makes  a 
wide  bend.  A  few  carts  were  seized,  into  which  tools  and 
ammunition  were  transferred,  and  to  two  of  which  the  trails 
of  our  two  small  field-pieces  were  fastened  and  thus  dragged 
along.  The  messengers  I  had  sent  the  previous  night  into 
the  village  round  Fort  Garry  met  me  here  with  the  assurance 
that  Kiel  and  his  gang  were  still  there  awaiting  anxiously 
the  arrival  of  Bishop  Tache,  who  was  hourly  expected.  It 
was  confidently  asserted  that  he  meant  to  fight.  He  had 
just  distributed  ammunition — stolen  from  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company's  stores — amongst  his  followers,  had  had  the  fort 
guns  loaded,  and  had  closed  the  gates.  I  subsequently 
learned  that  he  and  his  henchman,  a  common  fellow  named 
Donoghue,  had  started  from  Fort  Garry  during  the  night  to 
find  out  where  I  was  and  what  I  was  about.  But  the  very 
heavy  rain  they  encountered  was  too  much  for  them,  and 
being  afraid  of  capture  by  our  outposts  in  the  dark,  they  had 
gone  back  to  the  fort  as  wise  as  they  had  left  it. 

Our  march,  though  short,  was  very  trying  from  the  heavy 
rain  and  the  deep  mud  we  had  to  plough  through.  But  as 
aU  the  people  we  met  assured  the  men  we  should  have  a  fight, 
these  small  and  disagreeable  drawbacks  were  ignored. 

Fort  Garry  stands  upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Red  River, 
where  the  Assiniboine  falls  into  it.  The  fort  itself  is  a  high 
stone-walled  square  enclosure,  with  a  large  circular  tower 

218 


THE    REBEL    LEADERS    BOLT 


at  each  of  its  four  corners.  The  village  of  Winnipeg — 
mostly  of  wooden  houses — was  nearly  half  a  mile  to  the 
north  of  the  fort,  and  south  of  it,  at  about  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards  distance,  was  a  boat  bridge  over  the  Assini- 
boine.  My  object  therefore  was  by  circling  round  west  of 
the  fort  to  obtain  possession  of  that  bridge,  or  at  least  to 
command  it  with  my  fire,  I  should  then  have  Kiel  and 
company  in  the  right  angle  inclosed  between  the  two  rivers. 
Our  skirmishers  in  their  advance  captured  a  few  of  Kiel's 


T   ^^M  "#- 


^* 


^i'"^  K~ 


-^=?ra=j 


FORT^GAREY 

(Jrom  a  contemporary  engraving). 


so-called  councillors,  who  were  bolting  in  buggies  and  other 
means  of  conveyance. 

As  I  watched  the  muzzles  of  the  fort  guns,  I  confess  that 
I  hoped  each  moment  to  see  a  flash  and  to  hear  a  round  shot 
rush  by  me.  I  knew  they  had  no  shells,  and  that  they  did 
not  know  how  to  use  them  if  they  had  had  any.  But  in  the 
rain,  and  in  the  thick  atmosphere  when  the  rain  ceased  for  a 
little,  it  was  difficult  to  see,  even  through  our  glasses,  if  there 

219 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

were  men  at  the  guns  or  not.  I  sent  a  few  officers  who  had 
obtained  ponies  round  the  fort  to  see  what  was  going  on  in 
rear  of  it.  They  soon  returned  with  the  news  that  Kiel  had 
bolted,  and  that  the  fort  gates  were  open.  It  was  a  sad 
disappointment  to  aU  ranks.  Personally  I  was  glad  that 
Riel  did  not  come  out  and  surrender,  as  he  at  one  time  said 
he  would,  for  I  could  not  then  have  hanged  him  as  I  might 
have  done  had  I  taken  him  prisoner  when  in  arms  against 
his  sovereign.  But  though  we  did  not  catch  the  fellow,  we 
had  successfully  carried  out  the  task  that  was  given  us.  My 
chief  regret  was,  that  neither  of  the  two  militia  battalions 
with  me  had  been  able  to  be  in  at  the  finish.  Every  message 
received  from  the  Red  River  had  urged  me  to  press  forward 
with  all  speed,  as  no  one  could  predict  what  a  day  lost  might 
bring  forth,  and  I  felt  bound  to  do  so.  But  knowing  how 
gallantly  and  how  hard  those  two  militia  battalions  had 
worked  to  get  to  Fort  Garry,  I  was  indeed  truly  sorry  for  the 
disappointment  they  experienced. 

We  dragged  out  some  of  the  guns  in  Fort  Garry,  upon 
which  Riel  had  reHed  so  much,  and  with  them  fired  a  Royal 
Salute  when  the  Union  Jack  was  run  up  the  flagstaff.  From 
it  had  hung  for  months  before  the  rebel  flag  that  had  been 
worked  by  the  nuns  of  the  convent  attached  to  Bishop 
Tache's  cathedral,  and  presented  by  them  to  Riel. 

Neither  he  nor  his  friends  had  expected  us  so  early,  in 
fact  he  had  only  bolted  when  news  was  suddenly  brought 
to  him  that  our  skirmishers  were  in  sight.  His  breakfast  was 
still  on  the  table,  and  the  clothes  and  arms  of  himself  and 
party  were  scattered  about  his  room  when  we  entered  it, 
showing  the  suddenness  and  haste  of  his  flight. 

I  subsequently  ascertained  that  he  and  his  Irish  colleague 
had  some  difficulty  in  escaping.     They  knew  that  if  they 

220 


RIEL    SUBSEQUENTLY    HANGED 

fell  into  the  hands  of  the  loyal  settlers  they  might  expect  a 
short  shrift.  They  consequently  hurried  off  as  quickly 
from  the  fort  as  they  could  when  our  troops  came  in  sight. 
They  soon  crossed  the  Red  River,  feeHng  it  was  safer  to  have 
it  between  them  and  those  who  sought  to  bring  them  to 
justice.  They  hurried  on  until  dark,  when  they  bivouacked 
for  the  night.  Next  morning  they  found  themselves  without 
horses,  those  they  had  stolen  the  day  before  having  strayed 
off  during  the  night.  There  were  but  few  farms  near  on 
their  bank  of  the  river,  hence  to  obtain  food  they  were  com- 
pelled to  cross  to  the  other  side.  They  could  find  no  boat, 
so  proceeded  to  pull  down  a  snake  fence  to  make  a  raft. 
Having  no  ropes  to  fasten  the  rails  together,  Donoghue  was 
obliged  to  sacrifice  for  this  purpose  the  trousers  he  had  lately 
stolen  in  Fort  Garry.  Having  safely  crossed  the  river,  the 
farmer  whose  fence  they  had  pulled  down  compelled  them 
to  pay  well  for  the  damage  they  had  done.  Shortly  after- 
wards they  reached  the  frontier  town  of  Pembina,  in  the 
United  States  territory,  in  a  forlorn  condition,  without  shoes 
and  with  sore  and  swollen  feet.  Finding  he  did  not  there 
meet  with  the  cordial  reception  he  had  expected  from  the 
American  citizens,  he  went  to  a  village  some  fifty  miles  to 
the  westward,  to  which  he  had  previously  sent  the  best  of 
his  plunder.  He  evidently  found  the  game  of  rebellion  an 
interesting  and  profitable  occupation,  for,  some  fourteen 
years  afterwards,  he  embarked  in  another  similar  revolt. 
He  was  less  fortunate  in  his  second  effort,  as  he  was  taken 
prisoner  and  duly  hanged.  No  murderer  ever  better 
deserved  his  fate. 

Having  made  arrangements  for  housing  the  two  militia 
battalions  in  Fort  Garry  for  the  winter,  I  sent  off  between 
August  29  and  September  3,  the  battalion  of  the  Royal  Rifles 

221 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

and  the  detachments  of  Royal  Artillery  and  Royal  Engineers 
to  Montreal  by  the  same  route  we  had  come  by.  The  two 
militia  battalions  remained  in  Fort  Garry  all  the  ensuing 
winter.  The  Royal  Rifles  embarked  for  England  that  autumn, 
and  are  therefore  the  last  regular  troops  that  have  served  in 
the  beautiful  and  loyal  provinces  of  Quebec  and  Ontario. 
Raised  originally  in  North  America  for  service  against  the 
French  and  Indians,  it  was  but  fitting  that  a  battalion  of 
this  far-famed  and  historic  regiment  should  have  been  the 
last  of  our  Regular  Forces  to  serve  in  the  grand  and  lovely 
valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  I  wonder  when  we  shall  again 
have  any  of  our  British  regiments  there  ?  Withdrawn  solely 
for  economical  reasons,  they  may  yet  return  when  our 
Imperial  position  in  the  world  is  better  understood  and  ap- 
preciated by  the  nation  than  it  was  by  our  Ministers  in  1870. 

As  a  military  undertaking,  the  Red  River  Expedition  was 
peculiar  in  many  ways.  I  believe  it  was  the  cheapest  opera- 
tion we  have  ever  carried  out,  when  what  was  accomplished 
is  fairly  weighed  and  considered.  The  total  expense  was 
under  £100,000.  For  that  sum  about  1,400  men  were  sent 
by  rail  and  steamer  some  52  miles  and  then  in  canoes  and 
boats  for  600  miles  through  a  wilderness  of  rivers,  lakes,  for- 
ests and  rocks,  where,  as  no  food  was  to  be  obtained,  every- 
thing required  had  to  be  taken  with  us  and  transported  on 
the  soldiers'  backs  over  difficult  portages  for  many  miles. 

I  attribute  this  economic  result  chiefly  to  the  fact  that 
it  was  planned  and  organized  far  away  from  all  War  Office 
influence  and  meddling,  and  that  an  able  general  on  the 
spot — the  Hon.  James  Lindsay,  then  Commanding  in  Canada 
— was  allowed  a  free  hand  in  all  that  concerned  its  efficiency. 
The  Cabinet  and  Parliamentary  element  in  the  War  Office, 
that  has  marred  so  many  a  good  military  scheme,  had,  I  may 

222 


END    OF    THE    RED    RIVER    EXPEDITION 

say,  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  it  from  first  to  last.  When 
will  civilian  Secretaries  of  State  for  War  cease  from  troubling 
in  war  affairs  ? 

Whilst  we  were  thus  busy  in  forcing  our  way  through  and 
over  great  natural  obstacles  to  the  Red  River  Settlement 
to  put  down  an  insignificant  rebellion,  a  great  war  between 
two  powerful  European  nations  raged  in  France.  In  England, 
as  elsewhere  throughout  the  civilized  world,  aU  thoughts 
were  bent  upon  its  startling  events.  Would  the  French 
Imperial  Guard  once  more  strut  as  conquerors  through 
Prussian  cities  ?  or  was  Von  Moltke  to  dictate  terms  to  a 
French  Goverimient  from  his  camp  in  the  Champs  Elysees  ? 
Those  were  the  subjects  which  then  absorbed  public  interest 
in  every  land.  No  one  even  at  home  paid  much,  if  any, 
attention  to  our  proceedings  in  a  territory  whose  great  rivers 
and  forests  were  unknown  to  them  even  by  name.  Our 
home  press  was  naturally  absorbed  in  a  deep  consideration 
of  the  great  military  and  political  problems  this  Franco- 
German  war  had  revived.  None  had  room  in  their  columns 
for  any  consideration  or  discussion  of  far-off  prairie  affairs. 
There  was  no  one  in  authority  to  say  even  "  Well  done  !  "  to 
the  men  whose  daring,  high  military  spirit  and  unsurpassed 
endurance  I  have  endeavoured  to  describe.  But  aU  of  us 
had  something  far  better  than  any  honours  or  decorations 
could  have  given — I  mean  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
under  difficult  and  trying  circumstances  all  had  done  their 
duty  to  the  best  of  their  ability. 

So  ended  this  Red  River  Expedition  sent  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  Canada  to  put  down  Riel's  rebellion  and  restore 
order  in  what  is  now  the  splendid  province  of  Winnipeg. 
As  far  as  fighting  is  concerned,  it  was  a  bloodless  campaign, 
and  although  great  physical  difficulties  were  encountered 

223 


THE    STORY   OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

and  manfully  overcome  by  the  troops  employed,  not  a  life 
had  been  lost. 

All  ranks,  both  of  the   Regular  and  Militia  Troops  em- 
ployed, worked  as  hard  as  galley  slaves  throughout  this 
expedition,  and  they  did  so  cheerfully  and  intelligently. 
All  were  better  soldiers,  and  would,  in  civil  life,  be  able  to 
earn  their   bread    to   better    advantage    than  when  they 
had    landed   on   the    shores    of    Thunder    Bay.      Every 
man's   heart   had   been   in   this   novel  enterprise,   for   all 
had  been  taken  into  their  leader's  confidence  ;   no  attempt 
had  been  made  to  conceal,  or  even  to  minimise,  the  serious 
obstacles  that  lay  in  their  path,  and  they  showed  their 
appreciation  of  this  confidence,  not  only  by  the  amount  of 
work  they  got  through,  but  by  the  cheery  manner  in  which 
they  did  it.     I  can  draw  no  distinction  between  the  relative 
merits  or  military  value  of  the  Regular  Soldiers  and  the 
Canadian  Militiamen    who  went  with  me  to  Red  River. 
Each  had  arrived  at  Prince  Arthur's  Landing  with  special 
attributes  peculiarly  his  own,  but  by  the  time  Fort  Garry 
had  been  occupied  each  had  acquired  the  military  virtues 
of  the  other.     What  is  it  that  a  large  army  of  such  men  under 
some  great  leader  could  not  achieve  ?     I,  for  one,  don't  know. 

I  made  my  way  back  to  Montreal  over  the  lakes,  rivers 
and  the  mountain  range  I  had  previously  crossed  on  my  way 
westward  to  Fort  Garry.  I  was  well  received  by  old  friends 
in  the  commercial  capital  of  Canada,  where  I  was  enter- 
tained at  a  public  dinner  given  in  my  honour. 

I  returned  to  England  in  the  steamship  that  took  home 
General  Sir  James  Lindsay  upon  the  abolition  of  his  position 
as  commanding  the  forces  in  Canada.  The  Government 
had  determined  upon  the  withdrawal  of  all  our  troops  from 
the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  in  its  craze  for  economy  at 

224 


\i 


LEAVE    CANADA    1870 

all  costs.  In  fact,  it  seemed  to  be  the  general  wish  of  the 
party  then  in  office  to  get  rid  of  our  colonial  possessions  as 
a  source  of  weakness,  and  above  all  things,  in  the  interests 
of  national  economy.  It  was  a  most  unstatesmanlike 
policy,  for  as  long  as  we  kept  a  few  British  battahons  in  the 
chief  towns  of  Canada  we  fostered  a  living  and  most  useful 
flesh-and-blood  connection  between  it  and  the  Mother 
Country.  Its  people  highly  valued  the  presence  of  Royal 
Troops  amongst  them,  for  it  helped  to  foster  the  feeling  of 
British  nationality  to  which  they  attached  so  much  im- 
portance, and  these  troops  also  provided  the  means  for 
giving  some  mihtary  instruction  to  their  splendid  MiUtia. 
To  officers  who,  like  myself,  had  long  been  associated  with 
that  force  in  camps  and  cantonments,  it  seemed  to  be  the 
action  of  madness,  not  of  Statesmen,  to  withdraw  from  them 
that  efficacious  means  of  instruction  in  a  soldier's  duties. 
We  knew  that,  should  England  at  any  time  require  help  in 
a  serious  war,  the  Canadian  MHitia  might  be  depended  upon 
to  furnish  a  most  valuable  contingent.  But  that  was  not 
a  consideration  that  had  much  weight  with  either  Mr. 
Gladstone  or  his  colleagues. 

In  leaving  Canada  I  parted  from  several  staunch  and  able 
friends  to  whom  I  owed  much  for  many  a  kind  action. 
Foremost  in  that  number  were  Mr.  George  Stephen,  now 
Lord  Mount-Stephen,  and  Colonel  George  Denison,  of  the 
Canadian  Mihtia.  The  first  I  had  known  well  throughout 
my  long  service  in  America  as  a  wise  and  able  man,  an 
honest  straightforward  counsellor  in  all  matters  and  a  real 
friend  in  need.  Natural  gifts  strengthened  by  deep  study 
have  made  the  latter  better  fitted  for  high  military  command 
than  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  our  Army  officers.  It  is  a 
source  of  pride  to  me  to  have  known  intimately  and  to 
be  still  the  friend  of  two  such  men, 

VOL.  11.  225  Q 


CHAPTER    XLI 
Army   Reform  Begun   in    Earnest,    1871 

I  WAS  supposed  to  have  done  very  well  in  command  of  the 
Red  River  Expedition,  and  upon  my  return  home,  was 
received  by  the  Commander-in-Chief,  His  Royal  Highness  the 
Duke  of  Cambridge,  in  a  flattering  manner  and  with  all  that 
honhommie  for  which  he  is  so  well  known  in  our  Army.  I 
found  he  knew  much  about  Canadian  politics  and  was  well 
informed  regarding  all  matters  that  related  to  the  rebellion 
in  the  Red  River  and  to  the  military  measures  taken  to 
suppress  it.  He  asked  me  a  great  deal  about  the  Canadian 
military  forces,  in  whom  he  was  much  interested,  and  was 
much  gratified  when  I  expressed  a  very  high  opinion  of 
their  loyalty,  zeal  and  general  efficiency.  He  was  good 
enough  to  let  me  understand  that  I  might  expect  early 
re-employment  upon  the  staff.  But  I  soon  found  that  accord- 
ing to  the  views  then  entertained  by  our  old  general  officers, 
I  had  committed  a  serious  crime  in  presuming  to  express  my 
views  upon  military  matters  as  freely  as  I  had  done  in  The 
Soldiefs  Pocket  Book,  a  military  handbook  I  had  recently 
published.  However,  Mr.  Card  well  was  then  Secretary  of 
State  for  War,  and  I  was  told  it  was  his  intention  that  I 
should  be  appointed  to  the  Headquarter  Staff  upon  the  first 
suitable  opportunity.     He  had  already  determined  upon 

226 


THE    FRANCO-GERMAN    WAR 

the  abolition  of  purchase,  and  wanted  men  about  him  in 
the  War  Office  with  modern  views  upon  Army  matters. 

The  startUng  suddenness  with  which  war  had  been  declared 
by  Prussia,  great  battles  won  and  proud  France  struck  down 
and  brought  to  her  knees,  set  all  Europe  thinking.  The 
rapid  but  evidently  well  calculated  sequence  with  which 
momentous  events  had  followed  upon  the  opening  of  this 
war  had  roused  the  conscience  of  the  most  peace-loving  of 
our  statesmen.  It  silenced  even  those  who  had  been  loudest 
in  denunciation  of  war  as  the  inhuman  practice  of  a  barbar- 
ous age,  and  in  their  honest,  though  foohsh,  pooh-poohing  of 
any  possibility  of  its  recurrence  upon  a  great  scale  in  civil- 
ized Europe.  The  humane  theories  they  had  loudly 
asserted  and  preached  from  thousands  of  platforms  to 
audiences  only  too  anxious  to  agree  with  them,  had  vanished 
in  the  smoke  of  the  German  breechloader.  The  great  war  of 
1870  taught  us  serious  lessons  upon  all  military  subjects. 
The  sudden  collapse  of  the  French  army,  which  in  the  Crimea 
we  had  regarded  with  admiration  and  esteemed  so  highly, 
astonished  us  and  most  of  the  European  nations.  It  had 
gone  down  before  the  thoroughly  drilled  and  well  taught 
short-service  army  of  Prussia. 

In  1868,  when  Mr.  Gladstone  became  Prime  Minister,  the 
refrain  of  all  our  political  music  was  a  glorification  of  the 
protection  afforded  by  our  insular  position  in  Europe.  But 
men  began  now  to  question  the  soundness  of  this  faith.  The 
shock  was  felt  everywhere.  The  slow-moving  and  ever 
unready  England  felt  this  Franco-German  earthquake,  and 
it  seems  to  have  awakened  even  Mr.  Gladstone,  one  of  the 
most  peace-loving,  war-detesting  Ministers  who  ever  ruled 
any  nation's  destinies.  For  the  moment,  at  least,  the  possi- 
bility of  war  being  forced  unexpectedly  upon  us  became  a 

227 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

necessary  factor  in  all  our  calculations  of  the  national 
dangers  it  behoved  us  to  be  prepared  for.  The  fate  of 
France  had  struck  terror  even  into  the  hearts  of  men  who 
had  previously  never  wearied  of  crying  "  Peace,  peace ; 
war  is  a  past  horror."  Her  rapid  overthrow  became  all  at 
once  an  object  lesson  to  most  of  us.  Every  dark  cloud 
that  appeared  upon  the  international  horizon  seemed  meant 
as  a  warning  and  impressed  even  our  national  pilots,  who 
before  1 870  would  make  no  suitable  provision  against  possible 
nights  of  darkness,  of  storm,  and  of  danger.  Our  absolute 
unpreparedness  for  war  apparently  startled  Mr.  Cardwell, 
in  whose  calm  judgement  Mr.  Gladstone  trusted. 

One  of  the  world's  very  wisest  men  told  his  enormously 
rich  friend  that  "  He  who  has  the  best  steel  will  have  all  the 
gold."  But  the  modern  Liberal  thought  himself  wiser  than 
this  Greek  philosopher.  His  view  of  the  true  military  policy 
for  England  was,  that  as  long  as  our  coffers  were  full  of  gold 
we  could  at  any  moment  of  emergency  obtain  all  we  required 
for  the  defence  of  these  Islands  and  of  our  Empire  throughout 
the  world. 

"  We  don't  want  to  fight,  but,  by  Jingo !  if  we  do, 
We've  got  the  men,  we've  got  the  ships,  we've  got  the 
money  too." 

This  popular  music-haU  ditty,  though  of  a  more  recent 
date,  expresses  in  plain  words  the  faith  which  the  Liberal 
Government,  with  Mr.  Gladstone  at  its  head,  had  wished 
the  nation  to  believe  in,  and  to  hold  by,  previous  to  the 
year  1870. 

But  the  great  bulk  of  our  educated  and  practical  soldiers 
had  already  learnt  from  the  lesson  taught  to  Europe  by  the 
Franco-German  War  that  we  must  change  our  Army  System 
or  cease  to  be  a  great  Power.     The  old  system  of  repairs  to 

228 


OUR    OUT    OF    DATE   ARMY    SYSTEM  1871 

the  rickety  coach  in  which  our  mihtary  administration  had 
travelled  for  over  half  a  century,  would  no  longer  suffice. 
Formerly,  when  its  wreck  seemed  imminent,  we  were  content 
to  oil  its  creaking  wheels  and  even  at  times  to  put  in  a  new 
spoke  here  and  there  to  keep  them  in  working  order.  But 
most  of  our  thoughtful  soldiers  had  already  realized  that  the 
machine  had  then  reached  a  phase  when  it  could  be  patched 
up  no  longer.  The  ironwork  might  possibly  be  reforged, 
but  the  whole  of  its  body  and  superstructure  was  rotten  and 
beyond  the  hope  of  any  further  effective  repair. 

After  the  Franco-German  War  the  military  system  of  the 
conquering  power  was  carefully  studied  in  all  its  details  by 
those  who  wished  to  reform  our  land  forces.  We  quickly 
realized  that  our  Army  was  organized  upon  obsolete  prin- 
ciples and  that  it  had  fallen  behind  the  armies  of  the  other 
great  European  Powers  in  efficiency,  although  proportionally 
its  direct  cost  in  money  was  far  greater.  The  "  base-rock  " 
in  the  military  system  of  all  the  great  military  Powers  was, 
that  every  healthy  male  upon  reaching  manhood  should  be 
compelled  to  serve  in  the  Army  until  he  had  become  a  well- 
trained  soldier.  But  that  was  a  measure  which  no  political 
party  with  us  would  seriously  contemplate.  It  was  evident 
to  all  who  studied  the  matter  that  the  first  practical  step 
we  should  therefore  take  was  to  create  an  effective  Army 
Reserve  by  the  adoption  of  a  comparatively  short  period  of 
service  with  the  Colours.  Our  national  conditions  rendered 
the  formation  of  such  a  Reserve  a  peculiarly  difficult  matter, 
for  unlike  most  of  the  other  great  nations  we  have  large 
garrisons  to  furnish  for  those  stations  abroad  which  are 
the  centres  and  bases  for  our  Navy.  Without  them,  our 
fleets  could  not  keep  the  sea  during  war  in  these  days  of 
steam.     India  alone  requires  about  70,000  British  soldiers 

229 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

in  profound  peace,  and  practically,  even  during  periods 
when  no  war  was  in  the  air,  one  half  of  our  standing  army 
must  at  all  times  be  out  of  England.  Until  we  adopt  some 
form  of  obligatory  military  and  naval  service,  the  organiza- 
tion of  our  Army  must  always  be,  therefore,  a  far  more  com- 
plicated affair  than  it  is  in  any  other  country.  The  Party 
then  in  office,  as  is  customary  with  all  parties,  were  very 
averse  to  any  increase  to  our  standing  army. 

i  shall  not  attempt  to  enter  upon  any  description  of  the 
new  system  that  was  proposed  and  adopted  ;  I  wish  rather 
to  tell  how  it  was  effected.  For  home  defence  we  had  on 
paper  a  fairly  large  military  force  in  the  Regular  Army,  the 
Militia,  the  Yeomanry,  and  the  Volunteers.  The  Militia 
was  then  a  badly  organized  and  a  very  imperfectly  instructed 
force.  The  Yeomanry,  then  only  partially  drilled  and  armed 
and  equipped  as  cavalry,  could  be  of  little  practical  use  in 
war,  and  the  Volunteers,  with  no  organization  beyond  that 
of  the  battalion,  did  not  even  shoot  well.  There  was  no 
cohesion  between  these  differently  organized  military  bodies, 
and  in  fact  we  had  no  military  system  at  all.  There  were 
no  arrangements  prepared,  no  regulations  laid  down  for 
placing  in  the  field  even  a  small  army,  much  less  any 
general  plan  for  the  mobilization  of  all  our  military  forces 
for  war  purposes  in  any  case  of  emergency.  Many  who  had 
been  in  the  Crimea,  especially  amongst  the  educated  soldiers 
who  had  been  selected  for  the  staff  towards  the  end  of  the 
war,  fully  realized  all  this.  They  deplored  our  military 
inefficiency  and  the  absence  of  all  system  at  the  Horse 
Guards,  then  the  headquarters  of  our  Army.  That  wonder- 
ful institution,  which  had  forgotten  nothing  and  had  learnt 
nothing  since  Waterloo,  was  sadly  behind  the  time  in  every 
way.     It  was  generally  felt  by  all  who  carefully  studied  our 

230 


GENERAL    SIR    PATRICK    McDOUGALL 

complicated  military  problem,  that  the  Army  could  be  most 
easily  and  economically  augmented  by  making  the  Yeo- 
manry, Militia  and  Volunteer  forces  really  and  in  every  sense 
part  and  parcel  of  it.  This  was  eventually  effected,  and 
the  history  of  our  recent  war  in  South  Africa  amply  justifies 
the  military  wisdom  of  those  who  urged  this  measure  upon 
the  country. 

Fortunately  for  the  State,  an  extremely  able  officer, 
General  Sir  Patrick  McDougall,  had  just  been  created  head 
of  our  Reserve  Forces.  He  had  been  commandant  of  our 
old  Senior  Department  at  Sandhurst,  the  precursor  of  our 
present  Staff  College,  and  he  had  recently  been  the  adjutant- 
general  of  the  Canadian  Militia.  He  had  brought  to  the 
latter  thankless  office  a  clear  brain  and  a  bright  imagination 
untrammelled  by  obsolete  notions  upon  military  subjects. 
His  capacity  for  work  was  very  great,  and  his  perfect  and 
persuasive  manners  won  much  upon  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's 
susceptibilities.  He  was  well  aware  of  how  thoroughly  our 
antiquated  military  system  required  sweeping  reforms  to 
bring  it  up  to  a  level  with  modern  requirements,  and  he  had 
also  the  courage  of  his  opinions  to  say  so,  a  quality  which 
few  of  even  our  best  senior  officers  then  possessed.  It  was, 
however,  in  my  opinion,  the  feeling  that  the  Army  Reformer 
had  behind  him  a  strong  Minister  of  War  who  would  pro- 
tect him  from  the  fierce  enmity  of  the  old  school  that  gave 
him  and  others  the  courage  to  express  their  opinions  openly. 
Had  it  not  been  for  Mr.  Cardwell's  and  Lord  Northbrook's 
constant  support  and  encouragement,  those  of  us  who  were 
bold  enough  to  advocate  a  thorough  reorganization  of  our 
military  system,  would  have  been  "  provided  for  "  in  distant 
quarters  of  the  British  world  "  where  no  mention  of  us  more 
should  be  heard." 

231 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

The  startling  suddenness  with  which  war  had  been 
declared  by  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  the  rapidity  with 
which  that  declaration  was  followed  by  the  invasion  of 
France,  by  great  victories  won,  and  the  stupendous  results 
achieved  as  the  German  armies  pressed  westward  was 
undreamt  of  outside  of  the  Prussian  War  Office.  All  was 
done  in  a  well-calculated  sequence  according  to  a  long 
prepared  and  well  understood  plan.  Not  only  the  unfor- 
tunate victim,  self-confident  France,  but  all  Europe  was 
appalled  as  if  by  some  terrific  and  unlooked  for  upheaval 
of  nature.  But  to  the  educated  soldier  the  rapid  progress 
and  great  achievements  of  the  Prussian  army  were  a  serious 
lesson.  Military  history  had  long  taught  him  that  nations 
content  to  rely  on  paper  treaties  rather  than  on  their  own 
well  organized  naval  and  military  strength  must  fall  even- 
tually. Many  able  men  here  began  even  to  doubt  the 
sufficiency  of  that  much  vaunted  protection  which  the 
Channel  had  so  long  been  said  to  secure  us. 

Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Britain  men  asked 
one  another,  "  Are  we  safe  reaUy  in  these  Islands  ?  Or  is  it 
true,  as  our  best  soldiers  assure  us,  that  our  military  system 
is  so  obsolete,  our  Army  organization  so  unsuited  to  modem 
requirements,  that  our  power  of  resistance — as  in  the  case 
of  France  recently — would  utterly  break  down  if  tested  by 
invasion  ?  "  All  of  us  remembered  the  Great  Duke  of  Well- 
ington's celebrated  letter  to  Sir  John  Burgoyne  in  1849, 
upon  the  defenceless  state  of  England,  and  in  which  he 
strove  to  arouse  the  nation  and  make  it  realize  its  danger. 

In  common  with  a  number  of  our  educated  officers  in 
1871,  I  knew  what  was  wrong  in  the  Army  and  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  expose  it.  I  preached  reform  in  and  out  of 
season.     Our  Army  Regulations  were  drawn  in  the  interests 

232 


EARNEST   ARMY    REFORMERS    OF    1871 

and  for  the  convenience  of  the  officer.  He  usually  liked  to 
do  little,  and  all  those  who  opposed  every  mihtary  change 
simply  because  it  was  change,  defended  him  in  doing  that 
little.  To  study  his  profession,  to  become  a  master  of  his 
trade  was  the  role  of  a  very  small  knot  of  officers  at  that 
epoch.  The  great  bulk  of  them — ninety-nine  out  of  every 
hundred — liked  the  existing  system  of  regimental  promotion 
by  purchase,  slightly,  very  slightly,  tempered  by  seniority. 
It  was  a  simple  process  that  prevented  what  the  most  stupid 
amongst  us  called  favouritism,  what  the  wise  believed  would 
be  selection  for  merit,  and  it  was  the  introduction  of  that 
sort  of  selection  which  the  old  school  dreaded  most.  I  took 
my  stand  on  professional  efficiency,  and  at  once  became  very 
objectionable  to  the  old  generals  and  their  following  in  the 
Army.  Of  the  science  of  war,  or  of  its  recent  practice  in 
Europe,  they  understood  next  to  nothing,  and  had  a  horror 
of  the  colonel  or  the  general  who,  having  studied  the  matter, 
set  any  store  by  it. 

I  was  impatient  and  in  a  hurry  :  my  nature  would  not 
brook  the  sapping  of  a  regular  siege  :  I  wanted  to  assault  the 
place  at  once,  and  I  did  so.  The  slow  process  of  approach 
to  the  enemy's  works  that  a  politician  versed  in  House  of 
Commons  procedure  would  have  adopted  seemed  not  only 
odious  and  cowardly,  but  to  be  unsuited  to  the  object  our 
Army  Reformers  aimed  at.  I  soon  found  myself  surrounded 
by  the  ablest  soldiers  of  promise,  all  of  whom  were  of  my 
way  of  thinking  as  to  the  reforms  required.  The  fact  of 
my  having  seen  a  great  deal  of  service,  and  of  having  lately 
led  a  difficult  expedition  from  Canada  into  the  Red  River 
country,  gave  me  some  weight  in  bringing  those  reforms 
before  the  Army  and  before  those  in  Parliament  who  dabbled 
in  Army  affairs. 

233 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

But  my  best  chance  was  that  I  found  in  office  a  great 
Minister  at  the  head  of  Army  matters  ;  a  clear-headed, 
logical-minded  lawyer,  though  as  absolutely  ignorant  of  our 
Army  and  of  war  or  its  requirements  as  our  civilian  War 
Ministers  always  are. 

The  Army  was  then  divided — but  by  no  means  in  equal 
numbers — into  two  great  sections,  the  old  school  and  the 
new.  In  the  former,  by  far  the  most  numerous,  was  nearly 
every  general  officer  and  all  the  thoughtless  in  the  Army. 
Our  Commander-in-Chief  then,  was  the  Duke  of  Cambridge, 
a  very  clever  Prince,  who  knew  the  Army  thoroughly,  and 
was  looked  up  to  and  most  justly  liked  by  aU  ranks  in  it. 
Educated  to  believe  in  the  Army  as  he  found  it,  because  it 
had  been  made  by  the  Great  Duke  of  Wellington,  he  honestly 
and  firmly  believed  that  what  had  been  created  by  such  a 
master  of  war,  must  be  the  best  for  all  time.  He  had  not, 
apparently,  fuUy  taken  in  the  great  changes  which  the 
system  of  universal  military  service  had  produced  in  Euro- 
pean armies.  He  refused  to  believe  in  an  Army  Reserve,  and 
honestly  looked  upon  our  endeavour  to  create  one  here  as 
not  only  a  mad  foUy,  but  as  a  crime  against  the  State.  No 
more  loyal  and  devoted  Englishman  ever  wore  a  red  coat, 
but  nothing  would  or  could  convince  him  that  an  Army 
Reserve  in  this  country  would  be  forthcoming  when  wanted. 
Recent  experience,  however,  has  proved  how  absolutely 
wrong  the  old  school  of  officers  were  upon  this  point,  and 
no  man  more  than  His  Royal  Highness  has  ever  been 
thoroughly  converted  to  modern  ideas  on  this  point. 

I  have  mentioned  this  about  a  Royal  Personage  under 
whom  I  was  long  privileged  to  work,  because  I  liked  him 
more  and  more  the  better  I  knew  him.  Indeed  no  one  who 
served  for  so  many  years  on  his  staff  could  fail  to  love  his 

234 


H.R.H.    THE    DUKE    OF    CAMBRIDGE 

amiable  qualities,  or  to  admire  his  manliness  of  feeling. 
His  honesty  of  purpose,  loyalty  to  the  Army,  devotion  to 
duty,  sincere  patriotism  and  deep  and  real  attachment  to 
his  Queen  and  country  pervaded  all  he  did.  I  rejoice  to 
have  this  opportunity  for  thus  expressing  my  feelings  regard- 
ing so  great  a  Personage,  because  in  the  course  of  our  long 
intimacy  I  had  often  to  differ  materially  from  his  views  upon 
Army  matters  and  to  propose  changes  in  which,  at  the  time, 
he  did  not  always  concur. 

In  looking  back  at  my  long  connexion  with  the  War 
Office,  it  is  curiously  interesting  to  note  the  out-of-date  mode 
in  which  the  command  and  administration  of  our  Army 
was  conducted  when  I  first  joined  the  headquarter  staff.  I 
was  only  a  colonel  in  the  adjutant-general's  department,  and 
my  special  work  was  the  discipline  of  the  Army.  All  impor- 
tant court  martials  came  before  me,  and  when  officers  "  got 
into  scrapes,"  I  had  to  deal  with  them  under  the  orders  of 
the  adjutant-general.  If  the  matter  was  of  a  very  serious 
nature,  the  adjutant-general  laid  it  before  the  Commander- 
in-Chief.     But  such  cases  were  few. 

My  work  soon  became  more  important,  however,  for 
Mr.  CardweU  had  determined  to  abolish  the  Purchase  System 
and  to  reorganize  the  Army  upon  modem  lines.  The  recent 
war  between  France  and  Germany  woke  up  our  thinking 
soldiers,  but  there  were  not  many  of  them  at  that  time  in 
the  superior  ranks  of  our  Army.  It  began  at  last  to  dawn 
upon  the  mind  of  even  the  taxpayer  that  our  Army  was  as 
far  behind  that  of  France  as  that  army  had  lately  proved 
itself  to  be  behind  the  army  of  Germany.  Before  the 
Franco-German  War  we  had  rather  modelled  ourselves  upon 
the  French  army.  In  the  Crimea  we  had  found  our  military 
system  in  aU  its  methods  and  phases  to  be  hopelessly  out  of 

235 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S   LIFE 

tune  with  modern  ideas,  and  were  astonished  when  we 
realized  that  it  was  obsolete  when  compared  with  that  of 
the  army  which  the  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon  had  sent  into 
the  field.  We  all  felt,  indeed  we  were  certain,  that  our 
regimental  officers  possessed  aU  the  qualities  required  for 
leadership,  and  the  pages  of  history  equally  convinced  us 
that  as  men,  as  fighting  animals,  the  British  soldiers  were 
certainly  not  inferior  to  the  French  rank  and  file.  But  yet, 
though  all  thoughtful  men  who  had  served  before  Sebastopol 
realized  how  much  our  whole  Army  System  needed  reform, 
none  of  any  real  importance  was  effected.  The  Franco- 
German  struggle  at  last  opened  the  eyes  of  our  people  to 
the  real  state  of  our  out-of-date  Army,  and  to  our  absolute 
military  inefficiency. 

Most  of  our  old-fashioned,  and  may  I  venture  to  say,  of 
our  uneducated  officers,  refused  to  believe  this.  Their  minds 
would  accept  no  argument  on  the  subject.  An  Army  that 
had  been  organized  by  so  great  a  man  as  Wellington,  Napo- 
leon's conqueror,  must  be,  according  to  their  traditions,  the 
first  in  the  world  :  to  allow  this  Radical  young  Army  school 
with  all  its  new  views — "  made  in  Germany  " — to  touch 
that  sacred  Ark,  would  be  worse  than  sacrilege,  it  would  be 
national  folly  ! 

Those  who  then  fought  against  Army  Reform  were  thor- 
oughly honest,  but  yet  they  constituted  a  serious  danger  to  the 
Empire,  for  they  had  possession  of  all  the  high  posts  in  the 
Army.  To  differ  from  them  was  to  be  declared  a  Radical, 
a  positive  danger  to  the  State,  and  to  be  debarred  from  all 
chance  of  employment  in  the  higher  grades.  I  was  then 
classed  as  one  of  those  dangerous  officers.  To  lessen  our 
influence  everything  we  did  was  painted  in  dark  colours 
as  the  acts  of  fanatics  who  wished  to  destroy  the  old  institu- 

236 


OUR    RANK    AND    FILE    IN    1871 

tion  of  the  kingdom,  even  of  Royalty  itself.  I  felt  this 
extremely,  knowing  in  my  heart  how  sincere,  how  even  old- 
fashioned  was  the  nature  of  my  devotion  to  the  Crown,  and 
it  did  not  make  me  love  those  the  more  who  thus  defamed 
me.  Since  then,  especially  in  recent  years,  it  has  amused 
me  to  meet  those  who,  at  the  time  I  refer  to,  were  loudest 
in  denouncing  the  Army  Reserve  that  Mr.  Cardwell  was 
determined  to  build  up.  With  the  exception  of  the  few 
keen-sighted  men  who  knew  how  thoroughly  our  Army  was 
in  organization  behind  all  the  great  armies  of  Europe,  the 
bulk  of  our  officers  endorsed  the  denunciations  fulminated 
against  the  proposed  Army  Reserve  by  those  who  then  filled 
most  of  the  high  positions  in  our  Army.  The  chief  cry 
against  it  was,  that  whilst  it  would  cost  much,  we  could 
never  count  upon  it  when  war  came  suddenly  upon  us.  It 
is  difficult  to  argue  against  a  prophecy  of  this  nature. 
The  old-fashioned  officer  had  been  educated  in  the  notion 
that  it  was  essential  he  should  see  his  men  every  day  in  order 
to  be  certain  they  were  at  hand.  It  was  not  our  custom  then 
to  trust  much  in  the  honour  and  patriotism  of  our  soldiers 
during  peace,  though  we  were  certain  they  would  follow  us 
in  action. 

But  the  man  of  experience  in  the  field  as  a  Company 
officer  had  learnt  differently.  During  days  and  nights  and 
weeks  and  months  passed  in  the  field  or  in  the  trenches  before 
Sebastopol  amongst  our  very  badly  paid  men,  one 
learned  to  understand  and  to  appreciate  our  comrades  in  the 
ranks.  It  is  when  you  bivouac  amongst  them  that  you 
hear  their  views  upon  men  and  things  most  openly,  for  they 
are  wont  to  argue  plainly  amongst  themselves  upon  all 
matters  connected  with  their  daily  life.  They  express 
opinions  upon  the  character  of  their  officers  and  about  the 

237 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

generals  in  command  very  freely,  and  as  a  rule  with  much 
justice.  It  is  thus,  and  when  leading  them  under  fire,  that 
you  learn  what  fine  manly  fellows  our  privates  are,  and  what 
is  their  standard  of  honour.  It  was  thus  I  learnt  to  trust 
them,  and — barring  some  black  sheep  who  may  at  times  be 
found  even  amongst  the  bishops  of  every  Church — I  prefer  their 
code  of  honour  to  that  of  the  tradesman  or  typical  politician. 

Our  Rank  and  File  are  generally  right  in  the  estimate  of 
their  officer's  worth  and  character.  Whilst  they  hate  the 
bully  who  does  not  enter  into  their  feelings,  and  who  treats 
them  as  if  they  had  none,  they  have  the  most  enthusiastic 
admiration  for  the  officer  who  treats  them  kindly  as  well  as 
justly,  and  above  all,  who  in  moments  of  extreme  danger 
leads  well  in  front.  They  quickly  scent  out  the  sneak  and 
the  poor  of  heart.  In  fact,  taking  him  aU  in  all,  the  British 
private,  as  I  know  him,  is  a  fine  noble  fellow.  The  captain 
of  a  Company  on  active  service  whose  heart  is  with  his  men, 
who  never  spares  himself  at  their  expense,  who  cheerfully 
shares  their  discomforts,  who  does  his  duty  by  them,  and 
who,  weU  in  front,  "  leads  them  straight  "  in  action,  occupies 
a  position  of  far  more  intense  enjoyment  and  satisfaction 
than  is  to  be  found  in  any  other  position  that  life  affords. 
At  least  such  is  my  experience. 

Holding  these  views  I  always  scoffed  at  the  warnings  of 
those  who  would  not  believe  in  the  honesty  of  our  Reserve 
men,  and  I  never  failed  to  do  aU  in  my  power  to  further  the 
creation  of  that  splendid  body  which  so  honestly,  so  cheer- 
fully, rejoined  the  Colours  for  the  late  war  in  South  Africa. 
Without  it,  what  should  we,  with  our  absurdly  small  Army, 
have  done  then  ?  And  yet,  I  remember  hearing  it  and  the 
Reserve  system  generally  decried  and  denounced  publicly 
by  a  now  distinguished  soldier  at  a  great  dinner  given  in 
the  City  some  twenty  years  ago. 

238 


CHAPTER  XLII 

Lord   Airey,    Lord    Northbrook,   Mr.    Cardwell 

1871-1873 

WHEN  I  joined  the  Army  headquarter  staff,  it  was 
lodged  in  the  time-honoured  and  beautiful  building 
known  as  "  The  Horse  Guards."  But  Mr.  Cardwell  had 
already  determined  to  bring  over  the  Commander-in-Chief 
and  all  the  Army  Staff,  bag  and  baggage,  to  that  unhealthy 
and  curious  congeries  of  houses  in  Pall  Mall  known  as  the 
War  Office.  The  Commander-in-Chief  resisted  the  proposed 
change,  but  to  little  purpose  except  to  embitter  the  feeling 
which  had  long  existed  between  the  two  establishments. 

Tradition  is  a  strong  factor  in  all  old  armies  like  ours,  but 
what  is  based  upon  most  cherished  memories  has  often  to 
bend  before  the  hard  exigencies  of  new  convictions  and 
modern  necessities.  Pipe  clay,  stiff  leather  stocks,  ramrod- 
like rigidity  on  parade,  complicated  drill  and  many  other 
time-honoured  practices  have  all  had  to  make  way  for  a  new 
order  of  things,  more  practical,  though  possibly  less  thea- 
trical. In  1870  it  was  evident  that  our  parliamentary- 
governed  Army  could  be  ruled  no  longer  upon  its  old  lines, 
and  all  but  the  most  stubborn  of  obstructionists  soon  recog- 
nized that  fact.  The  best  of  our  thinking  soldiers  had  for 
some  years  realized  that  the  Army  was  not  on  a  level  with 
modern  military  requirements,  and  that  great  changes  were 

239 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

necessary  in  its  organization,  education  and  training,  and 
in  the  system  upon  which  it  was  officered  and  commanded. 
This  question  was  felt  to  be  more  pressing  than  any  demand 
for  domestic  legislation,  and  the  Cabinet  faced  it  boldly. 
Mr.  Gladstone  had  the  utmost  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and 
cool  judgement  of  his  old  friend,  Mr.  Cardwell,  and  resolved 
to  support  whatever  measures  he  recommended.  Our 
ablest  soldiers  pronounced  our  military  organization  to  be 
out  of  date,  and  the  Army  to  be  too  smaU  to  fulfil  the  pur- 
poses for  which  it  existed,  and  it  was  generally  known  that 
our  soldiers,  as  weU  as  our  fortresses  at  home  and  abroad, 
were  armed  with  obsolete  weapons. 

This  was  a  terrible  awakening  to  a  man  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
essentially  non-military  bent  of  mind,  and  who  wanted  for 
domestic  objects  all  the  money  he  could  obtain  by  ordinary 
taxation. 

Our  War  Office,  in  previous  years  the  dreary  abode  of 
overworked  clerks  and  of  despairing  staff  officers,  soon  be- 
came as  full  of  life  as  any  upturned  beehive.  Committees 
upon  matters  vital  to  the  interests,  to  the  very  safety,  of  our 
empire,  sat  daily  under  Mr.  Cardwell's  inspiration.  The 
modem  school  of  military  thought,  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Queen's  reign,  now  obtained  the  ear  of  the  public.  Mr. 
Cardwell  asked  for  and  obtained  the  advice  of  the  young 
school,  sifted  it,  and  finally  adopted  the  most  important  of 
the  measures  they  urged  upon  him.  No  British  War  Minister 
ever  responded  more  readily  to  demands  made  upon  him  by 
his  military  advisers.  He  gave  new  life  to  our  old  Army, 
and  according  to  my  views  of  public  life,  to  no  one  conse- 
quently in  my  day  is  the  nation  more  deeply  indebted. 

The  enthusiastic  but  thoughtful  soldier  wishes  England 
to  be  provided,  in  the  first  place  with  the  greatest  and  best 

240 


PARTY    INTERESTS    ALLTMPORTANT 

fleet  in  the  world,  and  secondly  with  a  thoroughly  efficient 
army  of  sufficient  strength  for  our  military  needs  at  home 
and  abroad.     But  in  times  of  profound  peace  he  never  hopes 
to  obtain  everything  the  Government  in  power  should  pro- 
vide for  the  Army.    When  our  old-fashioned  castles,  with 
their  exposed  walls,  had  been  rendered  useless  by  the  inven- 
tion of  rifled  guns,  it  was  a  long  time  before  the  most  impor- 
tant of  our  fortresses  were  restored  to  their  previous  relative 
strength.     We  went  on    patching  here,   and  squandering 
large  sums  there  to  little  purpose,  sooner  than  face  the  big 
question  of  entire  reconstruction  boldly.     It  is  only  the  great 
military  nations  of  Europe,  poor  though  they  may  be   in 
revenue,  who  have  the  sense  to  rearm  their  fighting  men  as 
a  body,  when  the  discovery  of  some  new  explosive  or  some 
new  mechanism  of  musket  or  field  gun  warns  them  that  it 
is  essential  for  national  safety  to  do  so.      Hitherto  we  have 
escaped    from    what    might    be   the    fatal    disaster  with 
which  such  a  military  policy  might  at  any  time  overwhelm 
us.   It  is  the  natural  tendency  of  all  party  political  associa- 
tions, such  as  our  modern  Cabinets  have  come  to  be,  to  post- 
pone any  full  consideration  of  the  nation's  military  needs  in 
favour  of  the  immediate,  the  direct  interests  of  party  politics. 
These  latter  are  too  often  allowed  to  outweigh  the  necessity 
for  any  large  expenditure  upon  the  defence  of  our  shores,  or 
upon  needed  improvements  in  the  fighting  power  and  effi- 
ciency of  our  military  forces.      Every  man  now  is  somewhat 
of  a  politician,  and  the  measures  which  party  interests  push 
to  the  front  are  understood  by  millions  to  whom  our  national 
military  necessities  do  not  appeal.     Too  often  those  neces- 
sities are  only  understood    by    our  educated    soldiers,  a 
limited  class  who  have  little    or    no   political  weight  in 
the  country.     Yet  this  information  is  doubtless  recorded 
VOL.  II.  241  R 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

in  every  foreign  War  Office.  The  large  and  increasing 
proportion  of  men  with  votes  amongst  us  naturally  tends 
to  make  political  leaders  pay  more  attention  to  domestic 
wants  than  to  great  questions  of  national  defence  that 
may  never  be  brought  practically  home  to  all  classes.  As 
regards  the  possibility  of  war,  "  Not  in  our  time,  O  Lord  !  " 
must  often  be  the  daily  prayer  of  those  who  in  office  de- 
liberately incur  such  possible,  such  awful,  risks.  Indeed,  it 
is  well  known  to  the  officers  employed  in  Pall  Mall  that 
only  in  moments  of  more  or  less  national  panic  can  they 
hope  to  obtain  what  their  professional  education  and  know- 
ledge warns  them  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  safety  of 
the  empire  at  home  and  abroad. 

When  I  joined  the  Army  headquarter  staff  in  1871,  the 
Adjutant-General  was  Sir  Richard,  afterwards  Lord  Airey, 
the  wisest  and  ablest  soldier  it  was  ever  my  lot  to  do  business 
with.  Indeed,  I  never  knew  any  one  in  our  Army  who  was 
better  fitted  for  high  military  command.  He  received  me  at 
the  Horse  Guards  with  the  courtly  and  reserved  dignity  which 
was  so  eminently  characteristic  of  the  man.  His  old-world 
and  stately  manners — that  reminded  me  of  my  father — 
were  most  taking  with  all  who  had  to  work  with  him. 
Although  anxious  to  bring  on  the  young  officers  whom  he 
thought  best  of,  he  was  always  distant  with  his  subordinates 
until  he  knew  them  well.  When,  either  at  home  or  in  the 
Crimea,  he  sent  you  on  some  particular  duty,  having  told 
you  what  he  wanted,  it  was  not  safe  to  ask  him  questions. 
His  usual  reply  to  the  inquiring  subordinate  was  :  "  You 
have  your  orders,  come  and  tell  me  when  you  have  carried 
them  out."  He  used  to  say  that  it  was  most  desirable  to 
make  young  staff  officers  think  for  themselves,  and  that 
their  very  mistakes  at  first  would  be  their  best  lessons  for 

242 


GENERAL    LORD    AIREY,  1871 

the  future.  He  had  very  justly  great  influence  with  the  Duke 
of  Cambridge,  who,  recognizing  his  ability,  leaned  much 
upon  him.  He  knew  the  Army  thoroughly,  had  commanded 
a  Line  battalion  with  the  greatest  credit,  and  had  made  it 
second  to  none.  He  had  also  served  under  Lord  Hardinge 
as  Military  Secretary  at  the  Horse  Guards,  and  was  con- 
sequently well  acquainted  generally  with  the  office  routine 
there.  He  was  the  only  man  whom  I  ever  knew  well  who 
had  personally  done  duty  with  the  "  Great  Duke."  I  have 
already  mentioned  how  thoroughly  he  was  looked  up  to  by 
all  that  was  best  in  our  Crimean  army,  and  how  ardently 
all  who  then  knew  him  well  had  hoped  to  have  seen  him  at 
its  head.  Thoroughly  educated  in  the  science,  as  well  as 
conversant  with  the  practice,  of  his  profession,  he  could 
teach  all  ranks  their  duty.  Cool,  collected,  never  excited, 
he  understood  mankind  and  all  its  weaknesses,  and,  what 
is  of  great  advantage  to  the  highly-placed  staff  officer  at 
Army  headquarters,  he  was  well  connected,  and  was  intimate 
with  what  is  commonly  known  as  "  Society." 

At  my  first  interview  with  him  upon  my  return  from 
Canada,  he  was  very  complimentary  in  his  remarks  upon  the 
manner  in  which  the  Red  River  Expedition  had  been  planned 
and  carried  out.  He  fully  appreciated  its  many  peculiar 
difficulties,  as  his  knowledge  of  the  backwoods  enabled 
him  to  estimate  them  at  their  proper  value.  In  my  many 
rides  with  him  subsequently,  he  told  me  why  it  was  he  had 
at  one  time  emigrated  with  his  family  to  Ontario,  intending 
to  make  it  his  home.  His  uncle.  Colonel  the  Hon.  Thomas 
Talbot,  owned  a  great  district  of  country  in  Canada  about 
as  large  as  an  ordinary  sized  German  principality,  and  had 
established  himself  upon  it  with  an  English  household  of 
servants,  as  a  grand  seigneur.     I  think  he  had  served  in  the 

243 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Peninsula,  at  any  rate  had  long  been  a  personal  friend  of 
the  great  Duke  of  Wellington.  Feeling  he  was  growing  old, 
and  being  lonely  in  his  western  home,  he  wrote  to  his  nephew, 
Colonel  Richard  Airey,  who  had  married  a  Talbot,  and 
whose  mother  also  had  been  one  of  that  family,  asking  him 
to  go  to  Canada  and  live  with  him  as  his  heir.  Sir  Richard 
was  then  the  Assistant  Adjutant-General  at  the  Horse 
Guards,  and  did  not  at  all  relish  a  proposal  that  would  re- 
move him  from  a  profession  he  loved  and  in  which  he  was, 
from  his  great  ability  and  scientific  military  knowledge, 
bound  to  rise  high  in  the  event  of  war.  But  he  was  poor  and 
had  a  family.  He  laid  the  matter  before  the  Great  Duke, 
knowing  that  his  uncle  had  been  one  of  his  personal  friends. 
The  answer  he  received  was,  "  You  must  go,  you  must  go." 
He  added,  however,  that  he  would  give  him  a  year's  leave, 
and  if  he  found  at  its  expiration  that  a  Canadian  life  did  not 
suit  him,  he  would  re-employ  him  when  he  returned  home. 
Many  were  the  interesting  stories  Sir  Richard  told  me  of 
his  life  in  the  backwoods  of  Canada,  but  the  repetition  of 
them  would  be  out  of  place  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  for 
several  reasons  his  uncle's  establishment  was  not  to  his  taste. 
He  consequently  returned  home  and  became  Military  Secre- 
tary under  General  Lord  Hardinge,  who  upon  the  Duke  of 
Wellington's  death  had  become  Commander-in-Chief. 

Lord  Airey  was  the  only  educated  soldier  of  great  ability 
who  was  ever  Adjutant-General  in  my  time.  He  was  a 
courtier,  and  knew  how  to  avoid  aU  argument  upon  subjects 
it  would  be  unwise  to  discuss  if  he  wished  to  exercise  any 
effective  or  useful  influence  upon  matters  of  most  import- 
ance. He  accepted  the  inevitable,  and  in  order  to  hold  his 
own  where  great  principles  were  involved  he  pretended  to 
agree   generally  with  old-fashioned   dogmas   at   which   he 

244 


GENERAL  LORD    AIREY    IN    THE    CRIMEA 

laughed  in  private.  His  career  of  usefulness  in  the  Crimea 
had  been  unfortunately  brought  to  an  end  in  the  following 
way. 

Excessive  overwork,  want  of  food,  of  blankets  and  warm 
clothing,  and  above  all  things  of  firewood  to  cook  with,  had 
decimated  our  army  before  Sebastopol  during  the  winter  of 
1854-5.  After  the  battle  of  Inkerman  it  had  become  too 
small  even  for  the  defence  of  the  Siege  works  we  had  already 
constructed,  and  we  began  to  realize  that  we  had  originally 
accepted  a  share  in  the  siege  that  was  out  of  all  proportion 
with  the  number  of  our  men.  It  was  to  the  military  ignor- 
ance of  our  Cabinet  in  sending  into  the  field  so  inadequately 
small  and  so  very  badly  equipped  an  army  we  must  attribute 
our  misfortunes  during  the  winter  of  1854-5.  To  save  their 
own  credit  they  wanted  a  scapegoat  upon  whom  to  shift  all 
responsibility  for  the  sufferings  to  which  they  had,  through 
ignorance,  exposed  our  soldiers,  and  Sir  Richard  Airey,  the 
Quartermaster-General  in  the  field,  was  selected  for  that  pur- 
pose. Some  newspapers  had  held  him  up  to  public  execration 
as  responsible  for  aU  our  misery,  as  being  useless,  ignorant  of 
war  and  of  how  to  wage  it  successfully.  In  order  to  obtain 
some  plausible,  some  specious  grounds  for  shifting  the  blame 
for  all  the  miseries  our  soldiers  had  endured  from  their  own 
shoulders  to  his,  and  to  make  him  and  other  military  chiefs 
in  the  field  responsible  for  those  miseries,  the  Cabinet,  in 
the  autumn  of  1855,  determined  to  send  two  special  com- 
missioners to  the  seat  of  war  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of 
our  misfortunes  during  the  previous  winter  and  spring. 
Colonel  TuUoch  and  Sir  J.  McNeill,  M.D.,  were  selected  for 
the  purpose,  and  upon  reaching  Balaclava  in  March,  1856, 
they  at  once  began  to  collect  evidence.  They  carried  no 
weight  in  the  Army,  where  neither  of  them  had  ever  been 

245 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

heard  of  before,  and  they  were,  in  fact,  unsuited  in  every 
respect  for  such  a  deHcate  task.  Amongst  others  whom 
they  examined  they  put  a  series  of  questions  to  Sir  Cohn 
Campbell.  I  remember  his  amusing  description  of  those 
two  gentlemen  when  speaking  of  them  in  India,  as  a  "  damned 
doctor  and  a  colonel  who  had  never  been  under  any  hotter 
fire  than  that  of  his  own  office  fire  in  London."  His  indig- 
nation was  expressed  in  strong  terms  when  he  mentioned 
the  questions  put  to  him — an  experienced  soldier — by  men 
who  knew  nothing  of  war  or  of  its  difficulties. 

The  reports  of  their  proceedings,  as  far  as  they  went,  are 
to  be  found  amongst  the  Parliamentary  papers  of  the  time, 
and  should  be  studied  by  all  ambitious  officers. 

From  Lord  Airey  I  heard  many  an  amusing  description 
of  what  may  be  justly  called,  and  what  he  considered  to  be, 
his  "  trial  "  before  the  Board  of  Generals  who  sat  at  Chelsea 
to  consider  the  charges  brought  against  him  by  his  accusers. 
The  "  prosecution,"  however,  broke  down  hopelessly,  and 
ended  in  a  fiasco  that  was  almost  comical.  He  told  me  that 
after  he  had  delivered  his  "  opening  address,"  one  of  his 
traducers  had  such  pains  in  his  stomach  he  would  never 
again  appear  before  the  Board,  and  that  the  other  poor  man, 
also  refusing  to  attend,  was  heard  of  no  more  !  The  Army 
laughed  loudly  at  this  result,  but  as  I  have  said  above,  the 
fact  that  these  accusations  had  been  listened  to  by  the 
Government  of  the  day  seemed  to  have  robbed  Lord  Airey 
of  all  his  old  military  zeal,  and  as  far  as  I  could  judge  he 
was  never  the  same  man  again.  Thenceforth  he  seemed 
to  regard  his  duties  as  mere  routine  matters  to  be  performed 
with  skill  and  care  ;  but  enthusiasm  entered  no  more  into 
his  daUy  discharge  of  them.  He  apparently  resented  the 
disgrace  that  had  been  so  unjustly  put  upon  him,  and  the 

246 


RIDES    ROUND    LONDON 

unwarranted  injury  to  his  reputation  as  a  soldier  that  had 
been  done  him  by  those  who  ought  to  have  been  the  first  to 
defend  him.  He  said,  in  talking  this  over  with  me  years 
afterwards,  that  the  Government  of  the  day  had  from 
cowardice  given  way  to  the  clamour  raised  against  him  in 
order  to  screen  their  own  shortcomings.  He  told  me  that 
when  brought  home  to  answer  these  absurd  charges,  he  was 
warned  by  influential  friends  he  might  expect  the  treatment 
meted  out  to  Admiral  Byng  just  a  century  before. 

I  had  joined  the  Quartermaster-General's  staff  soon  after 
the  fall  of  Sebastopol,  and  I  can  speak  from  personal  know- 
ledge of  the  esteem  he  was  then  held  in  by  all  who  were  in 
daily  contact  with  him. 

When  I  first  joined  the  Horse  Guards  staff,  I  rode  much 
with  him.  Almost  every  fine  Sunday,  when  we  were  both 
in  town,  we  wandered  about  the  commons  near  London. 
He  knew  every  field  where  we  could  have  a  gallop,  and  knew 
where  we  could  best  negotiate  each  fence.  He  was  a  first 
rate  horseman,  and  loved  the  animals  he  rode.  Ever  since 
my  first  wound — when  I  was  shot  through  the  thigh — I  can 
grip  my  saddle  with  one  leg  only,  and  should  my  horse 
swerve  at  a  fence  I  have  often  much  difficulty  in  keeping 
my  seat.  He  knew  this,  and  my  efforts  to  follow  his  lead 
amused  him.  He  was  the  most  charming  and  instructive 
of  companions,  understanding  Society  and  the  world  gener- 
ally better  than  most  men.  In  manners  he  was  a  thorough 
courtier,  and  often  laughed  at  himself  for  being  so.  I 
realized  from  his  manner  when  talking  to  me  about  Army 
matters  that  I  was  hated  in  certain  quarters  because  of  my 
opinions  upon  all  points  of  military  organization,  and 
because  I  alone  of  those  in  office  at  the  Horse  Guards  would 
not  follow  the  dictates  of  my  military  superiors,  and  pre- 

247 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

sumed  to  express  openly  my  own  views  to  Mr.  CardweU  at 
War  Office  meetings.  This  conduct  on  my  part  was,  he 
said,  looked  upon  as  a  species  of  high  treason.  Because  I 
held  strong  views  upon  the  great  military  value  of  our  Auxi- 
liary Forces,  and  of  the  Volunteers  especially,  I  was  looked 
upon  as  a  sort  of  traitor  to  the  old  traditions  of  our  Army. 
According  to  the  reasoning  of  our  out-of-date  Army  school, 
such  opinions  could  only  be  entertained  by  a  Radical,  that 
most  dangerous  of  aU  beings  according  to  its  notions  ;  and 
the  fact  that  I  soon  became  intimate  with  Mr.  CardweU  con- 
firmed many  in  this  opinion,  as  that  Minister  was  known  to 
be  bent  upon  Army  Reform. 

I  felt  such  a  reform  to  be  absolutely  necessary  if  our  Army 
was  to  be  converted  into  an  efficient  fighting  force,  and 
rejoiced  to  find  that  Mr.  CardweU  took  me  somewhat  into 
his  confidence.  But  I  was  only  one  of  several  then  in  the 
War  Office  who  did  their  best  to  help  him  in  the  most  difficult 
task  that  any  British  War  Minister  has  ever  had  to  tackle. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  War, 
Lord  Northbrook,  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  convic- 
tion that  our  Army,  in  its  organization  and  methods,  was  far 
behind  the  best  European  armies.  I  need  not,  indeed  it 
would  be  unbecoming  in  me  to  dweU  upon  his  ability,  his 
power  of  work,  his  mUitary  intuition,  the  fearless  deter- 
mination with  which  he  approached  aU  questions  of  Army 
Reform,  and  the  amount  of  study  he  had  bestowed  upon  the 
organization  of  foreign  armies.  He  supported  Mr.  CardweU 
in  aU  his  proposed  reforms,  and  convinced  him  of  others  that 
were  stUl  required.  He  was  a  thorough-going  man  of 
business,  and  a  statesman  who  examined  for  himself  every 
new  proposal  made  by  the  ardent  young  Army  Reformers 
then  around  him.     He  was  the  mainstay  of  the  new  English 

248 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL    AND    ARMY    RESERVE 

Army  school,  which  the  Franco-German  war  had  recently 
called  into  existence.  He  judged  its  teachings  and  its  pro- 
posals on  their  own  merits,  and  when  he  adopted  them,  it 
was  because  he  believed  in  them,  and  not  from  that  love  of 
change  for  change's  sake,  with  which  crime  many  then 
charged  our  Army  Reformers.  The  book  of  our  military 
system — if  it  deserved  to  be  called  a  "  system" — was  open 
before  him,  and  all  the  old  officers  of  whom  the  Army  Head- 
Quarters  Staff  then  chiefly  consisted,  were  at  hand  to  ex- 
pound and  praise  its  written  and  unwritten  regulations. 

Never  having  had  any  turn  for  party  politics,  it  concerned 
me  little  whether  I  was  classed  as  Tory,  Liberal,  or  destruc- 
tive Radical,  and  it  amused  me  to  hear  men  describe  me  as 
belonging  to  the  last  named  party.  I  had  been  brought  up 
in  what  I  may  style  the  strict  sect  of  Church  and  State 
Toryism,  but  I  could  not  be  an  obstructive  Tory  in  military 
matters,  for  I  knew  too  well  that  our  Army  was  absolutely 
behind  the  age  in  every  way. 

Any  one  who  understands  the  practical  working  of  our 
Constitution,  knows  that  there  is,  and  will  always  be,  a  point 
beyond  which  annual  Army  expenditure  must  not  be  per- 
manently increased.  For  the  time  being  we  had  practically 
nearly  reached  that  point  already.  To  have  hoped,  therefore, 
that  any  Administration  would  allow  us  to  keep  on  foot 
during  peace  a  standing  army  of  sufficient  strength  to  have 
given  us,  for  instance,  a  field  army  such  as  that  we  sent  to 
South  Africa  in  1899-1900,  would  have  been  the  dream  of 
a  visionary.  But  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  make  the  old- 
fashioned  officer  realize  this.  He  refused  to  believe  in  an 
Army  Reserve,  and  asserted  that  it  would  not  be  forthcoming 
when  most  urgently  wanted.  He  would  not  accept  the 
assurance  that  the  only  system  under  which  we  could  ever 

249 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

hope  to  have  a  miHtary  force  sufficient  for  our  wants,  and 
that  would  always  be  available  for  sudden  emergencies, 
was  that  which  would  supply  us  with  a  large  Reserve  of 
trained  soldiers,  who,  whilst  living  chiefly  on  the  wages  they 
earned  as  civilians  in  time  of  peace,  should  be  bound  by  a 
daily  retaining  fee  to  come  out  for  mihtary  duty  whenever 
the  State  required  their  services.  Our  recent  Boer  War  has 
shown  us  how  absolutely  essential  that  system  is  for  us  as  a 
nation. 

Whilst  Mr.  Card  well  was  in  office  I  enjoyed  my  work  at 
Army  Headquarters.  It  was  most  interesting,  and  I  im- 
agined I  was  of  use  there.  I  certainly  worked  hard,  and  by 
the  united  efforts  of  others  about  me,  who  also  recognized 
the  necessity  of  Army  Reform,  many  most  useful  changes  in 
organization,  drill  and  equipment  were  effected.  But  the 
opposition  in  Parliament,  in  Society,  and  even  in  the  Army 
itself  to  any  radical  change  in  our  out  of  date  Army  organiza- 
tion, was  enormous.  The  old  Tory  officer  would  listen 
patiently  to  no  proposals  on  the  subject,  and  short  of  starting 
a  new  Army  upon  entirely  new  principles,  I  often  despaired 
of  Mr.  CardweU  being  able  to  carry  through  Parliament  the 
useful  military  reforms  he  aimed  at.  This  strong  Con- 
servative dislike  to  change  was  shared  by  our  officers 
generally,  and  defended  by  their  kinsfolk  and  friends  in 
Parliament.  This  was  so  strong  a  castle  of  obstruction,  that 
many  believed  it  could  only  be  carried  by  a  coup  de  main, 
and  for  that  Mr.  Cardwell  was  I  know  prepared,  if  at  the 
last  moment  he  found  himself  "  cornered."  Once  or  twice 
it  was  thought  that  Mr.  Gladstone  seemed  inclined  to  give 
in  :  he  never  fully  understood  the  question  in  all  its  bear- 
ings, and  it  was  certainly  in  every  sense  uncongenial  to  his 
mind  :    it  did  not  enter  into  his  philosophy.     But  without 

250 


THE    ABOLITION    OF    PURCHASE 

any  attempt  to  master  its  details,  he  adopted  Mr.  CardweU's 
costly  proposal  to  abolish  the  long-established  Army  system 
of  "  purchase  "  as  the  foremost  object  of  his  policy  at  the 
moment.  This  proposal  was  so  strenuously  opposed  by 
aU  the  Conservative  and  richer  classes,  that  I  assumed  at 
the  time — whether  rightly  or  wrongly  I  know  not — he  must 
have  thought  it  could  not  therefore  fail  to  be  appreciated 
generally  by  his  own  followers.  Did  not  his  Radical  friends 
hail  with  pleasure  every  enactment  that  was  odious  to  the 
better  classes  ?  Surely,  therefore,  this  abolition  of  purchase 
would  be  generally  regarded  as  a  great  Radical  victory  ! 

There  is  no  Statesman  for  whose  memory  I   entertain  a 
greater  regard  than  I  do  for  that  of  Mr.  Cardwell.     And  no 
public  man  I  have  known  was  ever  more  misunderstood 
except  by  the  soldiers  he  had  to  work  with.     Most  culti- 
vated by  taste  and  education,  he  possessed  a  charm  for  all 
who  knew  him  well.     Soft  hearted,   amiable  and  full  of 
consideration  for  those  who  were  worthy  of  it,  no  man  knew 
better  how  to  hold  his  own  against  unfair  pressure.     Always 
patient  in  listening  to  the  views  of  others,  calm  and  civil  and 
guardedly  polite  to  those  who  differed  with  him,  he  did  not 
easily  alter  the  resolutions  he  had  arrived  at,  or  the  opinions 
he  had  formed  after  he  had  fully  grasped  any  subject.     Of 
a  legal  turn  of  mind,  he  weighed  the  conflicting  convictions 
of  those  who  were  entitled  to  express  them  upon  Army 
matters.     No  judge  was  ever  in  a  more  difficult  position 
than  he  found  himself  about  the  time  I  joined  the  head- 
quarter staff  of  the  Army  in  1871.      The  points  he  had  to 
decide,  intricate  even  for  the  initiated,  were  upon  a  great 
subject  that  had  never  before  come  within  the  limit  of  his 
political  considerations.     The  nature  of  the  so-called  canals 
in  Mars  had  previously  entered  as  little  into  his  studies,  or 

251 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

had  as  little  occupied  his  thoughts,  as  had  the  military 
systems  of  Europe,  and  least  of  all  that  of  England.  The 
subject  was  not  congenial  to  his  tastes,  and  there  was 
nothing  in  common  between  him  and  the  fighting  British 
soldier.  The  ambitions,  the  prospects,  the  feelings  and 
prejudices  of  our  officers  were  not  known  to  him.  He  did 
not  himself  belong  to  what  I  may  call  a  military  family, 
and  until  he  became  Secretary  of  State  for  War  he  could 
have  heard  little  intelligent  discussion  upon  Army  matters. 
He  had  of  course  gathered  from  newspapers,  during  the 
progress  of  the  1870  war,  that  the  German  army  was  a 
magnificently  designed  and  well  built  machine  for  enforcing 
the  will  of  the  nation  and  for  the  protection  of  its  national 
territory.  He  may  have  seen  comparisons  made  in  the 
European  press  between  it  and  the  old-fashioned  British 
Army.  Many  public  lectures  even  had  been  given  by 
English  officers  in  which  our  military  shortcomings  had  been 
fully  set  forth.  Some  of  our  most  highly  educated  soldiers 
had  pronounced  our  organization  to  be  entirely  obsolete, 
our  drill  to  be  much  the  same  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Sir 
John  Moore,  and  in  fact,  our  Army  little  better  than  an 
anachronism  in  the  days  of  universal  service,  of  the  breech- 
loader and  of  long-ranging  rifled  guns. 

The  most  intelligent  of  our  young  officers,  and  a  few  even 
of  the  ablest  seniors,  called  loudly  for  reforms,  and  the  press 
in  general  backed  them  up  and  thus  obtained  a  hearing  in 
Parliament  for  the  proposals  they  could  not  otherwise  have 
hoped  for. 

Mr.  Cardwell's  private  secretary  was  an  old  and  highly 
esteemed  comrade  of  mine,  then  Major,  now  General,  Sir 
Robert  Biddulph.  A  very  able  man,  well  read  upon  all 
military  subjects,  who  had  seen  much  active  service  in  the 

252 


GENERAL  SIR  ROBERT  BIDDULPH 

Crimea,  during  the  Indian  Mutiny  and  in  China,  he  was  a 
man  who  thought,  and  was  certainly  one  of  the  best  soldiers 
all  round  I  ever  knew.  He  understood  our  Army  thoroughly, 
and  was  fully  alive  to  its  backwardness  in  all  that  goes  to 
make  up  military  efficiency.  He  was  of  the  utmost  use  to 
Mr.  Cardwell  at  a  time  when  that  great  War  Minister  had 
determined  to  abolish  the  Purchase  System,  to  reform  the 
Army  and  bring  it  up  to  a  level  with  modern  requirements. 
The  Secretary  of  State  for  War  who  has  a  soldier  of  such 
ability  and  experience  as  his  private  secretary  is  indeed 
fortunate,  whilst  he  who  has  a  civilian  or  a  second  rate 
officer  in  that  capacity  is  just  the  reverse.  Indeed  the  in- 
ferior soldier  is  the  more  dangerous  man  in  that  position, 
because  he  is  likely  to  have  weight  with  his  civilian  master 
and  to  lead  him  astray  upon  military  points,  whereas  no  one 
suspects  the  civilian  private  secretary  of  knowing  more 
about  Army  matters  than  the  War  Minister  does  himself. 

I  often  went  then  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  listen  to 
the  debates  on  this  subject,  and  to  be  at  hand  in  case  Mr. 
Cardwell  should  want  information  upon  any  unexpected 
point  that  might  be  sprung  upon  him  by  a  soldier  Member 
with  which  he  might  not  happen  to  be  fuUy  acquainted.  It 
was  interesting  for  me  as  a  party-politics  hater  to  watch  the 
shifts  and  ruses  resorted  to  by  those  who  objected  to 
Mr.  Cardwell's  proposed  changes.  Their  arguments,  though 
sometimes  flimsy,  were  specious,  and  often  amusing.  But 
Mr.  CardweU  had  so  thoroughly  absorbed  the  ins  and  outs 
of  all  the  important  points  bearing  upon  the  question,  that 
he  seldom  had  recourse  to  my  aid  upon  such  occasions.  Per- 
sonally I  became  much  attached  to  him,  as  I  think  all  were 
who  knew  him  well.  I  always  thought  he  keenly  felt  the 
unmerited,  the  unworthy,  abuse  that  was  heaped  upon  him 

253 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

by  what  is  commonly  known  as  "  Society."  Mothers  with 
stupid  soldier  sons  denounced  him  as  bent  upon  destroying 
the  Army  which  our  Great  Duke  had  bequeathed  us.  The 
way  in  which  he  was  generally  held  up  to  derision  was  not 
creditable  to  the  intelligence  of  those  concerned.  The 
foreigner  who  did  not  know  how  absolutely  ignorant  society 
was  upon  Army  matters,  might  have  imagined  that  Mr. 
Cardwell  had  some  personal  interest  in  the  measures  he 
carried  out :  else  why  should  he  pursue  a  line  of  policy  that 
all  the  Field-Marshals  and  old  Generals  denounced — including 
even  Indian  generals,  who  knew  but  little  of  our  Army  ? 

It  cannot  be  too  much  impressed  upon  those  who  are 
anxious  for  information  upon  the  subject,  that  in  all 
Mr.  Cardwell  did  then,  he  acted,  not  upon  political,  but  upon 
purely  and  essentially  national  and  military  grounds.  He 
soon  came  to  realize  that  we  could  not  hope  to  have  a  thor- 
oughly efficient  Army  as  long  as  the  illogical  Purchase  System 
was  allowed  to  bar  the  way  to  all  useful  Army  reforms. 
Indeed,  the  first,  the  biggest  and  most  serious  of  all  our  Army 
fights  at  this  period  was  over  its  "  abolition."  As  a  system, 
it  was  not  only  the  most  objectionable  and  glaring  of  our 
military  anachronisms,  but  in  times  of  peace  it  blocked  every 
avenue  to  the  advancement  of  merit.  Its  abolition  was 
opposed  with  all  the  ignorance  so  often  displayed  by  our 
soldiers  in  Parliament.  My  old  campaigning  chum,  the 
Hon.  Augustus  Anson,  a  man  of  great  intelligence  and  a 
first  rate  soldier,  was  one  of  those  who  opposed  its  abolition 
to  the  bitter  end.  He  was  strenuously  helped  by  his  very 
able  brother-in-law,  the  present  Lord  Wemyss,  by  almost  aU 
the  old  retired  Army  officers,  and  by  a  large  majority  of 
those  still  serving.  Fortunately  for  the  Army  it  was  carried 
through  Parliament  successfully,  and  the  great  principle  of 

254 


OUR    INTELLIGENCE    DEPARTMENT 

selection  for  all  promotions  soon  followed.  This  was 
Mr.  Cardwell's  first  military  achievement,  and  it  merits  the 
remembrance  and  gratitude  of  all  soldiers  and  of  every  one 
who  desires  to  see  our  Army  efficient. 

This  measure  cost  the  country  a  large  lump  sum  of  money, 
and  it  imposed  a  considerable  increase  in  annual  Army 
expenditure  for  many  years  afterwards.  And  yet,  it  was 
planned  and  successfully  carried  out  by  the  most  economical 
of  Governments,  and  by  about  the  greatest  economy-loving 
member  in  that  Government,  because  he  felt  assured  that 
until  the  Army  was  repurchased,  as  it  were,  from  the  officers 
who  had  bought  their  positions  in  its  ranks,  it  never  could 
be  made  the  thoroughly  efficient  force  the  nation  wanted. 

Our  Intelligence  Department  at  that  time  possessed  several 
remarkable  men  who  devoted  their  best  energies  to  help 
forward  Army  Reform.  Of  them  no  one  worked  to  better 
advantage  or  with  greater  zeal  than  my  old  valued  friend 
and  loyal  comrade  Captain  T.  Jessop,  of  the  Scots  Greys. 
An  able,  clever  man  all  round,  fuU  of  energy  and  of  bright, 
modern  views.  A  good,  hard-working  man  of  business — 
that  best  of  qualifications  for  a  staff  officer — free  from  pre- 
judice and  of  a  most  liberal  turn  of  mind.  Another  was 
Captain  Evelyn  Baring,  now  Lord  Cromer,  the  well-known 
British  representative,  I  must  not  say  ruler,  in  Egypt.  He 
was  an  indefatigable  worker,  and  one  of  the  very  ablest, 
strongest  and  most  determined  men  I  ever  knew  or  did 
business  with.  He  helped  materially  in  carrying  out  many 
of  our  most  needed  Army  Reforms  at  the  time  I  write  of. 

Many  other  able  soldiers  helped  Lord  CardweU  in  his 
difficult  task,  amongst  whom  were  Sir  Patrick  MacDougall, 
Sir  George  CoUey,  Sir  Edward  Bulwer,  Sir  Henry  Bracken- 
bury,  and  Sir  Frederick  Maurice.     In  all  possible  ways  they 

255 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

helped  forward  the  new  military  system  Mr.  Cardwell  was 
toiling  to  create.  But  all  this  opposition  in  Parliament  and 
elsewhere  to  Mr.  Cardwell' s  proposed  changes  brought  down 
much  obloquy  upon  the  Government,  and  several  of  its 
supporters  would,  I  think,  at  one  time  have  gladly  seen 
the  matter  dropped. 

I  have  always  believed  that  the  mental  strain  thus  im- 
posed upon  Mr.  Cardwell  was  too  great  for  him,  and  that 
the  brain  disease  from  which  he  died  some  years  afterwards 
was  the  result  of  the  worry,  work,  abuse  and  anxiety  he  then 
underwent  at  the  hands  of  men  who  did  not  understand 
modern  warfare  or  its  requirements.  I  hope  we  shall  never 
forget  that  it  is  to  his  courage,  firmness  and  wisdom  we  owe 
our  present  Army.  It  is  by  no  means  what  it  might  have 
been  and  what  it  still  requires  to  be  made,  but  let  the  reader 
imagine,  if  he  can,  how  we  could  have  met  the  recent  Boer 
invasion  of  our  colonies  if  Mr.  Cardwell  had  never  reformed 
our  Army  and  made  it  even  as  good  as  it  is.  He  it  was  who 
wisely  provided  us  with  the  reserve  of  trained  soldiers  and 
the  large  army  of  trained  auxiliary  forces  which  enabled  us 
to  bring  that  strangely  long  drawn  out  war  to  a  fairly 
successful  issue. 


256 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

The  Ashantee  War  of  1S73-4 

THE  story  of  my  campaign  against  Ashantee  in 
1873-4,  is,  for  many  reasons,  full  of  interest  for  me, 
and  perhaps  my  readers  may  find  some  pleasure  in  the 
following  brief  description  of  it. 

I  shall  make  no  attempt  to  relate  the  history  of  our 
early  relations  with  Ashantee.  It  would  be  of  little  interest, 
and  would  certainly  neither  redound  to  the  credit  of  our 
arms  nor  to  the  intelligence  of  our  home  Ministers.  It 
is  not  easy  to  define  the  immediate  cause  of  eveiy  war  we 
have  waged  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  We  may,  how- 
ever, truthfully  assert  that  most  of  them  grew  out  of  our 
abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade.  As  the  King  of  Ashantee's 
revenue,  which  had  been  considerable,  was  chiefly  derived 
from  the  sale  of  slaves  captured  in  his  frequent  wars,  he 
was  naturally  furious  with  us  for  having  thus  deprived  him 
of  his  market  for  them.  This  had  made  him  in  the  years 
immediately  preceding  our  war  all  the  more  anxious  to 
secure  Elmina  or  some  other  place  on  the  sea  where  he 
could  in  safety  seU  his  prisoners  to  slave-owning  states. 

The  history  of  all  our  dealings  with  the  Ashantees  teUs 
us  that  whenever  our  Governor  of  the  Gold  Coast  made  any 
move  that  showed  signs  of  weakness,  trouble  with  Koo- 
massee    invariably    followed.     The    cowardly    policy    we 

VOL.  II.  257  s 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

pursued  in  1807  led  to  the  Ashantee  invasion  of  1811  : 
the  Ashantee  inroad  in  1823  was  the  result  of  our  buying 
off  that  enemy  in  1817,  and  the  fact  that  we  did  not 
attempt  to  avenge  Sir  Charles  MacCarthy's  defeat  in 
1824,  had  brought  the  enemy  to  the  very  walls  of  our 
coast  forts. 

As  we  made  no  attempt  to  take  vengeance  for  this 
overwhelming  defeat,  the  Koomassee  Sovereign  and  his 
warlike  people  naturally  assumed  we  were  afraid  of  them. 
Was  not  the  possession  of  our  general's  skull  amongst 
their  war  trophies,  upon  which  the  King  swore  his  most 
solemn  oaths,  a  lasting  evidence  that  we  dared  not  meet 
them  again  in  battle  ?  King  Koffee  Kalcali — their  king 
in  1873 — brought  up  to  consider  himself  the  greatest 
of  monarchs  and  his  soldiers  irresistible — believed  he  could 
afford  to  treat  us  with  contempt,  and  even  to  ill-use  and 
murder  our  native  subjects. 

When  the  Ashantees  had  invaded  our  territory  in 
1863  and  attacked  the  tribes  under  our  protection,  we 
unwisely  stationed  a  West  Indian  regiment  at  Prahsu  for 
several  months.  The  operations,  badly  devised  and  worse 
executed,  ended  in  terrible  sickness  and  loss  of  life  before 
we  had  made  any  useful  impression  upon  the  enemy.  The 
details  of  this  discreditable  failure  so  horrified  the  English 
world  at  the  time,  that  the  Government — held  responsible 
for  it — was  nearly  turned  out  of  office  in  consequence. 
It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  Cabinet, 
ten  years  later,  should  have  dreaded  what  our  projected 
expedition  might  have  in  store  for  them. 

Early  in  1873  a  mail  steamer  from  the  Gold  Coast  brought 
home  the  alarming  news  that  an  Ashantee  army  of  about 
12,000  soldiers,  under  the  command  of  Prince  Menza,  King 

258 


ASHANTEES  INVADE  PROTECTORATE 

Koffee's  brother,  had  crossed  the  Prah  in  January  to 
invade  and  lay  waste  our  protectorate.^  It  was  said  to  be 
the  largest  army  that  had  ever  left  Koomassee.  Our  West 
Coast  authorities  do  not  seem  to  have  attached  much  im- 
portance to  this  event,  and  consequently  little  was  done 
in  the  way  of  military  preparations  to  meet  the  impending 
attack  until  about  the  middle  of  the  year.  Our  governor 
then  reported  the  enemy  to  be  within  twenty-four  hours' 
march  of  Cape  Coast  Castle,  and  that  the  Fantee  population 
could  not  be  induced  to  face  them.  In  fact,  the  invaders 
were  allowed  to  remain  for  about  half  the  year  in  undis- 
turbed possession  of  the  greater  part  of  our  protectorate. 
Besides  the  Gold  Coast  towns  we  only  held  Dunquah,  on 
the  Prahsu-Koomassee  road,  which  we  had  occupied  with 
some  Houssas  early  that  year,  and  where  we  had  ordered 
the  fighting  men  of  the  native  tribes  to  assemble.  But  in 
April  the  latter  were  defeated,  and  could  never  afterwards 
be  induced  to  meet  their  old  enemies,  although  King 
Koffee's  army  made  little  use  of  the  victory.  It  did  not 
attempt  to  approach  Cape  Coast  Castle,  but  moved  towards 
Elmina,  covering  as  it  advanced  a  large  area  in  order  to 
find  food,  which  is  never  plentiful  in  that  forest  country. 
We  had  recently  acquired  Elmina  from  the  Dutch,  but 
its  king,  who  was  anti-English,  had  sworn  his  "  great  oath  " 
to  join  the  Ashantee  invaders  when  they  reached  his 
territory,  and  other  neighbouring  potentates  were  said 
to  have  followed  his  example.  Although  the  enemy's 
march  was  slow  and  deliberate,  Elmina  was  soon  invested. 
Fortunately  for  England,  it  was  then  held  by  a  small  party 
of  marines,  bluejackets,  and   West   Indian   soldiers   under 

*  This  army  was  said  to  have  taken  five  days  in  crossing  the 
Prah,  having  but  two  ferry  boats  that  carried  only  thirty  men  each. 

259 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Colonel  Festing  of  the  Royal  Marines,  and  Lieutenant 
Wells  of  the  Royal  Navy.  With  this  feeble  garrison  they 
drove  back  the  enemy  with  loss  in  June,  1873,  and  the 
place  was  saved.  Death  overtook  the  gallant  Wells  at 
his  post,  and  of  the  marine  garrison  twenty-seven  died, 
and  the  fever-stricken  remainder  had  to  be  sent  home. 

Throughout  this  war  Colonel  Festing  did  the  State  right 
good  service.  A  brave  gentleman,  a  cool  and  daring 
soldier,  he  inspired  general  confidence,  and  it  was  by  his 
skilful  use  of  the  small  force  at  his  disposal  that  we  were 
able  to  hold  our  own  both  at  Elmina  and  at  Cape  Coast 
Castle  throughout  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1873.  He 
was  well  supported  by  the  senior  naval  officer  of  the 
station.  Captain  Fremantle,  a  man  of  indefatigable  energy, 
great  experience  and  much  ability,  if  I  may  venture  to  use 
such  terms  in  relation  to  one  who  is  now  a  distinguished 
Admiral  of  the  Fleet. 

After  their  repulse  the  Ashantee  army  fell  back  to  a 
position  some  ten  miles  inland,  near  Mampon,  and  to  the 
north-west  of  Cape  Coast  Castle.  Its  presence  there, 
however,  served  to  keep  the  protectorate  in  a  constant 
state  of  alarm,  for  no  one  could  say  when  the  whole  Ashantee 
nation  might  not  swoop  down  upon  our  coast  settlements. 
Indeed,  when  they  did  attack  our  Fantee  levies  in  the 
following  June,  those  cowards  fled  with  their  women  and 
children  to  Cape  Coast  Castle  for  protection. 

In  September  the  Administrator  of  the  Gold  Coast  urged 
Colonel  Festing  to  attack  the  enemy's  camp  at  Mampon 
without  waiting  for  reinforcements  from  home.  Amongst 
other  reasons  for  pressing  this  course  upon  him,  it  was 
alleged  that  our  inaction  was  injurious  to  our  fighting 
reputation  amongst  our  own.  tribes.    A  weak  man  might 

260 


LORD    KIMBERLEY 

have  given  way  against  his  better  judgement  to  such  an 
appeal  from  a  civil  governor,  but  Colonel  Festing  wisely 
refused  to  undertake  any  such  risky  operation. 

As  we  made  no  move  the  invaders  grew  bolder,  until 
in  June,  1873,  as  already  related,  they  even  ventured  to 
attack  Elmina.  Though  effectively  repulsed  in  the 
attempt,  they  showed  no  signs  of  retiring  within  their  own 
frontiers.  They  merely  fell  back  to  take  up  a  threatening 
position  further  inland.  In  this  condition  of  affairs  it 
became  very  evident  to  Lord  Kimberley  that  all  hope  of 
making  any  definite  and  lasting  peace  with  the  Ashantee 
king  until  his  army  had  been  utterly  defeated  was  merely 
the  wild  dream  of  timid  men,  who  neither  understood  the 
haughty  character  of  the  Ashantee  people  nor  the  abject 
cowardice  of  the  Fantees,  who  constituted  the  Queen's 
subjects  in  the  "  protectorate." 

As  might  be  expected  from  a  very  warlike,  proud  and 
barbarous  people,  our  having  left  them  unpunished  for 
their  invasion  of  our  territory  was  attributed  to  cowardice. 
Such  pusillanimous  conduct  caused  them  to  believe  we  were 
afraid  of  so  great  a  king  and  of  so  great  a  nation. 

Such  a  condition  of  things  always  means  war  sooner  or 
later,  but  when  the  nature  of  the  Gold  Coast  climate  is 
remembered  it  is  easy  to  understand  why  the  home 
Government  elected  to  postpone  making  it  as  long  as 
possible.  But  at  the  same  time,  it  must,  I  think,  be  ad- 
mitted as  a  broad  fact  that  we  have  generally  owed  our 
troubles  in  those  regions  to  the  halting,  changeable  and 
timid  pohcy — dictated  from  Downing  Street — that  we 
followed  in  deaUng  with  this  nation  of  warriors.  Lord  Kim- 
berley, then  Minister  for  the  Colonies,  who  knew  the  history 
of  our  former  relations  with  that  formidable  mihtary  power, 

261 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

now  insisted  upon  prompt  measures  being  taken  to  put  an 
end  once  and  for  ever  to  this  intolerable  condition  of  affairs. 
Working  conjointly  with  Mr.  Cardwell — a  former 
Colonial  Minister  who  thoroughly  understood  the  Gold 
Coast  history — they  decided  to  make  a  soldier  Governor 
of  our  Gold  Coast  territory. 

Mr.  Cardwell  had  in  confidence  already  informed  me 
that  he  would  like  me  to  go  there  should  it  be  determined 
to  undertake  active  operations  against  the  invading 
Ashantees.  In  numerous  Blue  Books,  and  in  piles  of  con- 
fidential correspondence  between  local  governors  and  the 
Colonial  Office,  I  had  consequently  made  a  careful  study 
of  the  subject,  and  had  perused  all  the  available  works 
which  bore  upon  the  geography  and  history  of  the  region 
in  question.  I  there  learnt  that  military  operations  upon 
the  Gold  Coast  cannot  be  begun  with  safety  until  about 
the  end  of  November  or  the  beginning  of  December,  nor 
can  they  be  prolonged  without  inordinate  risk  much 
beyond  the  end  of  February.  In  other  words,  for  whatever 
eventualities  I  might  deem  it  essential  to  provide,  my 
operations  must  be  planned  so  as  to  fit  well  within  those 
three  months.  It  required  some  fertihty  of  imagination  to 
make  any  useful  forecast  as  to  the  development  of  a  problem 
in  which  the  idiosyncrasies  of  an  absolute  negro  ruler,  like 
the  King  of  Ashantee,  formed  an  important  factor.  I  sub- 
mitted privately  to  Mr.  Cardwell  the  rough  outline  of  a 
military  scheme  which  if  vigorously  carried  out  would,  I 
believed,  enable  us  to  destroy  the  military  power  of  the 
Ashantees,  and  thereby  secure  peace  to  the  people  of  our 
West  Coast  settlements  for  at  least  a  long  period.  The 
rough  outline  of  the  scheme  was,  that  I  should  proceed 
there  as  soon  as  possible  and  assume  the  government  of  all 

262 


PLAN    OF    OPERATIONS 

our  settlements  in  that  part  of  the  world  ;  that  I  should 
be  allowed  to  take  with  me  a  number  of  carefully  selected 
officers  for  the  purpose  of  raising  an  efficient  native  force, 
if  that  were  possible,  and  that  with  it  I  should  do  my  best 
to  drive  back  the  Ashantee  invaders  beyond  the  River 
Prah  and  secure  our  possessions  from  future  attack.  But, 
I  added,  that  all  the  information  I  had  gathered  on  the 
subject  made  me  think  it  would  be  impossible  to  accomplish 
what  was  wanted  without  the  assistance  of  white  troops,  as 
it  was  tolerably  evident  the  Fantees  would  not  face  their 
old  and  dreaded  enemies  the  Ashantees  unless  thus  backed 
up.  I  said  the  Government  might  rely  on  it  that  I  would 
do  my  best  to  avoid  the  terrible  necessity  of  having  to 
employ  our  soldiers  in  such  a  climate,  but  that  I  deemed 
it  to  be  absolutely  essential  to  have  two  ^  first  rate  battalions 
told  off  and  specially  equipped  for  a  campaign  beyond  the 
Prah  should  I  send  home  to  say  I  could  not  fulfil  my 
mission  without  their  help. 

My  plan  was  to  make  a  good  road  to  the  Prah  River  and 
erect  suitable  shelters  for  those  white  battalions  at  selected 
halting  places  along  it  :  that,  when  everything  was  ready,  I 
should  land  them,  and  having  collected  my  fighting  forces 
on  that  river  push  forward  the  remaining  seventy  or  eighty 
miles  to  Koomassee  with  all  speed,  and  if  possible  make 
peace  there  with  King  Koffee.  If  he  would  not  do  this, 
I  would  destroy  his  palaces,  burn  his  capital  and  lay  waste 
his  country  as  well  as  I  could,  and  with  the  least  possible 
delay  send  back  the  British  troops  to  their  transports, 
which  I  should  have  waiting  for  them  on  the  coast. 

My  study  of  our  past  relations  with  the  Ashantees  drove 

^  I  subsequently  increased  this  number  to  three  battalions  which 
the  Government  agreed  to. 

263 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

home  into^  my  mind  the  conviction  that  until  we  had 
utterly  defeated  their  army  and  taken  Koomassee,  we 
should  never  have  any  assured  peace  in  our  West  African 
settlements.  Until  we  had  actually  marched  an  army  into 
Koomassee,  the  natives  of  all  tribes  and  races  would  continue 
to  beheve  that  if  we  dared  to  push  forward  beyond  the 
River  Prah  we  should  be  exterminated.  This  belief  did 
exist,  and  was  the  chief  cause  of  my  subsequent  difficulty 
in  obtaining  carriers  who  would  work  beyond  that  river. 
All  the  West  African  natives  far  and  near  believed  the 
Ashantees  to  be  irresistible  in  battle,  and  I  confess  they 
found  reason  for  that  belief  in  the  history  of  aU  our  previous 
dealings  with  Koomassee  and  its  rulers.  It  is  always  a 
source  of  serious  danger  to  have  on  your  frontiers  a  fighting 
race  of  savages  imbued  with  this  firm  belief  in  their  own 
irresistible  strength.  In  this  instance,  that  axiom  was 
strengthened  by  our  having  recently  allowed  the  Ashantees 
to  cross  into  our  protectorate  and  to  kill  or  carry  off 
into  slavery  the  inhabitants  of  whole  villages. 

Accustomed  to  the  bush,  in  which  they  could  move  about 
as  they  liked,  it  never  seems  to  have  occurred  to  the  illogi- 
cal mind  of  the  Ashantees  that  we  could  do  so  equally 
well  if  only  we  had  the  courage  to  face  them.  The  dark, 
thick  and  tangled  forest  in  which  they  lived  was  to  them 
but  as  the  Surrey  Commons  might  be  to  us,  a  species  of 
country  to  be  manoeuvred  through  as  an  ordinary  military 
exercise.  They  consequently  attributed  our  repugnance 
to  penetrate  its  recesses  to  our  fear  of  so  redoubtable  an 
enemy.  I  soon  found  that  this  belief  was  not  confined 
to  those  who  had  lived  beyond  the  Prah,  but  was  freely 
shared  by  all  the  kings  and  people  of  our  protectorate. 
Since  Sir  Charles  MacCarthy's  defeat  in  1823,  aU  punitive 

264 


WAR    DEALINGS    WITH    THE    NATIVES 

attacks  upon  recalcitrant  native  rulers  had  devolved 
almost  exclusively  upon  our  ships  of  war.  These  little 
expeditions  on  the  West  Coast  were  liked  by  the  officers  and 
ships'  crews,  and  the  Navy  had  come  to  regard  them  as 
exclusively  their  business. 

In  all  local  troubles  with  the  coast  chiefs  or  kings  whose 
towns  could  be  reached  by  our  ships'  guns,  the  usual  course 
was  as  foUows  :  The  matter  was  reported  by  the  governor  to 
the  senior  naval  officer,  and,  as  a  punitive  measure,  he  was 
requested  to  open  fire  upon  the  collection  of  mud  huts  which 
constituted  the  capital  of  the  recalcitrant  potentate.  This 
he  at  once  proceeded  to  do.  It  was  a  simple  operation  ; 
the  town  named  was  quickly  and  easily  reduced  to  ashes 
by  our  shells,  and  the  inhabitants  fled  for  safety  to  the 
neighbouring  bush.  When  we  had  thus,  as  it  was  under- 
stood, vindicated  the  offended  honour  of  England,  our 
ships  of  war  disappeared,  and  the  villagers  returned  to 
their  burnt  homes  to  bury  those  who  had  been  killed  and 
to  restore  the  thatched  roofs  of  their  mud  houses.  It  was 
a  cheap,  rough-and-ready  mode  of  bringing  home  for  the 
moment  to  the  minds  of  aU  negro  rulers  on  the  coast  the 
greatness  of  the  White  Sovereign  beyond  the  ocean  who 
claimed  them  as  her  subjects.  The  penalty  inflicted  was 
trifling,  and  in  a  few  weeks  nothing  remained  to  show  that 
the  English  had  punished  the  offending  chief.  A  full 
report  of  the  proceedings  was  then  forwarded  to  the 
Admiralty  in  a  despatch,  and  "  My  Lords  "  expressed  their 
unquaUfied  approval  of  the  way  in  which  the  affair  had 
been  disposed  of.  The  whole  performance  was,  in  fact, 
eminently  futfle,  and  as  it  probably  involved  killing  some 
women  and  children,  it  was  cruel  also. 

Remembering  these  facts  it  was  but  natural  that  some 

265 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

naval  officers  should  have  regretted  deeply  that  the  settle- 
ment of  our  Ashantee  difficulty  should  not  have  been  left 
entirely  to  the  Admiralty.  There  was  also  perhaps  another 
reason  why  my  appointment  should  not  find  favour  there. 
The  Colonial  Office  had  already  sent  out  Captain  Glover, 
R.N.,  to  the  valley  of  the  River  Volta  with  a  sort  of  roving 
commission,  in  the  hope  that  his  operations  there  might 
bring  the  Ashantee  King  to  reason.  It  was  not,  therefore, 
far-fetched  to  imagine  that  naval  officers  might  think  it 
was  scarcely  fair  to  Captain  Glover  to  call  in  a  soldier 
before  his  scheme  had  been  given  a  trial,  and  to  entrust 
that  soldier  with  the  supreme  direction  of  aU  the  military 
and  political  affairs  in  the  coming  war. 

Captain  Glover  had  left  England  in  August,  1873,  for  our 
territory  in  the  Volta  Basin.  Boundaries  in  those  regions 
were  then  very  undefined,  indeed,  as  far  as  I  know,  the 
only  actual  surveys  of  any  portion  of  our  protectorate  are 
those  made  by  the  officers  who  went  with  me  to  Koomassee. 
The  most  important  paragraph  of  Captain  Glover's  instruc- 
tions— as  I  understood  them — was,  that  "  the  great  object 
of  his  mission  was  to  create  such  a  diversion  on  the  flank 
and  rear  of  the  Ashantees  as  might  force  them  to  retreat 
from  the  protectorate,  or  at  all  events  to  so  far  harass  and 
alarm  them  as  to  enable  an  attack  to  be  made  on  them  in 
front  with  better  prospect  of  success."  ^ 

But  notwithstanding  that  paragraph  in  his  instructions 
it  always  seemed  to  me  that,  looking  far  ahead  beyond 
that  "  great  object,"  his  chief  aspiration  was  to  open  out 
a  new,  an  easy  route  for  trade  into  the  interior  of  Africa 

^  "Colonial  Office  Instructions  of  August  18  to  Captain  Glover 
as  our  Special  Commissioner  to  the  friendly  native  chiefs  in  the 
eastern  districts  of  the  Protected  Territories  near  and  adjacent  to 
our  Settlements  on  the  Gold  Coast." 

206 


MEETING    AT    THE    WAR    OFFICE 

by  the  hitherto  unexplored  Volta  Valley.  It  was  a  grand 
idea  well  worthy  of  so  far-seeing,  so  determined  an  explorer, 
and  I  regret  beyond  measure  that  it  has  never  been 
seriously  undertaken.  But  it  was  not  the  object  of  the 
mission  upon  which  I  was  sent.  I  thought  then,  and  still 
believe,  that  until  I  had  sent  him  positive  orders  to  cross 
the  Prah  on  January  15  and  to  march  upon  Koomassee 
with  all  the  forces  at  his  disposal,  he  had  regarded  the 
destruction  of  the  Ashantee  military  power  as  a  mere 
episode  in  the  much  grander  and  more  ambitious  scheme 
he  had  always  before  him.  But  that  scheme  would  require 
some  years  to  carry  out,  whereas  the  object  of  my  mission 
was  definite,  namely,  to  secure  peace  to  our  protectorate  by 
the  destruction  of  the  Ashantee  military  power  before 
the  next  unhealthy  season  had  set  in. 

On  August  13  there  was  a  meeting  at  the  War  Office  of 
Ministers  and  high  military  and  naval  authorities.  I 
was  sent  for  and  asked  if,  with  my  knowledge  of  affairs 
upon  the  Gold  Coast,  I  would  undertake  the  direction  of 
the  civil  and  military  affairs  there.  I  was  told,  that  if  I  said 
"  yes,"  I  should  not  be  expected  to  remain  there  after  I 
had  settled  matters  with  King  Koffee  Kalcali.  I  at  once 
assented — Heavens,  with  what  internal  joy  I  did  so  !  A 
messenger  was  forthwith  sent  to  Osborne  to  obtain  Her 
Majesty's  consent,  and  two  days  later  it  was  announced 
in  all  the  London  papers  that  I  was  to  leave  for  West 
Africa  immediately.  The  Cabinet  were,  I  think,  anxious 
to  make  publicly  known  their  determination  to  deal 
quickly  and  drastically  with  this  Ashantee  question,  and 
to  let  the  world  learn  that  they  were  already  busy  in  pre- 
paring for  war  should  it  be  forced  upon  them.  Other 
somewhat    similar   meetings    took   place   subsequently    in 

267 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Mr.  Cardwell's  room.  They  interested  me  much,  for  I 
had  never  before  heard  Ministers  discuss  amongst  them- 
selves questions  of  Imperial  policy.  Those  whom  I  then 
heard  debate  the  serious  question  of  whether  a  military 
force  should  or  should  not  be  sent  to  the  Gold  Coast,  were 
able  and  experienced  statesmen.  I  did  not  expect  them 
to  know  much  of  war,  or  of  its  difficulties,  from  a  military 
point  of  view,  but  I  did  imagine  there  would  have  been 
a  unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  the  evident  necessity  for  going 
to  war.  At  one  of  these  meetings,  a  Minister  who  was 
present,  put  several  pertinent  questions,  which  his 
colleague  of  the  Colonial  Office  answered,  I  thought,  in  a 
somewhat  sharp  tone  of  voice.  I  may  have  been  wrong, 
but  I  fancied  that  the  questions  reflected  naval  sentiment 
at  the  Admiralty.  At  least  that  was  my  impression  at  the 
time. 

Some  questions  and  answers  passed  between  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Colonies  and  another  Minister  who  was 
present  as  to  what  it  was  hoped  or  intended  to  do  under 
many  contingencies.  Lord  Kimberley's  temper  became 
apparently  somewhat  nettled  under  his  colleague's  cross- 
examination  until  at  last,  in  reply  to  some  inquiry,  he 
thumped  the  table  in  front  of  him  and  said  in  a  determined 
voice,  "  Either  this  expedition  comes  off  or  I  cease  to  be 
Colonial  Minister."  This  emphatic  reply  astonished  me 
not  a  little,  but  it  had  what  I  presume  was  its  intended 
effect,  for  it  ended  the  discussion,  and  the  despatch  of  the 
expedition  was  agreed  to. 

Mr.  Cardwell,  who  did  not  seem  to  enjoy  this  somewhat 
open  exchange  of  views  between  colleagues,  brought  the 
meeting  to  a  close,  pouring  oil  upon  the  troubled  waters 
with  that  mild  determination  of  manner  which  was  a  prom- 

268 


THE    WAR    DECIDED    UPON 

inent  feature  in  his  character.  Tlie  die  was  cast,  and  the 
general  plan  of  campaign  was  to  be  on  the  lines  I  had  pro- 
posed. I  was  to  have  the  invaluable  advantage  of  being 
not  only  Military  Chief,  but  also  governor  of  the  territories 
which  constituted  or  bordered  upon  the  seat  of  war.  Upon 
the  general  line  of  policy  to  be  followed  I  received  fairly 
clear  instructions,  but  much  was  wisely  left  to  my  discre- 
tion. The  fact  that  the  Government  thus  trusted  me  I 
attributed  to  Mr.  Cardwell's  experience  as  Colonial  Minister 
in  a  former  Administration,  which  had  taught  him  the 
desirability  of  concentrating  in  one  man's  hands  both  the 
civil  and  military  power  when  war  is  imminent  in  any  of 
our  distant  possessions. 

To  compare  a  small  with  a  great  affair  upon  such  a 
point,  let  the  reader  contrast  the  history  of  Sir  John  Moore's 
remarkable  campaign  in  Spain  with  the  history  of  this 
little  war.  The  comparison  will  illustrate  clearly  how 
marked  is  the  advantage  to  the  nation  when  the  home 
Government  is  wise  enough  to  entrust  the  Commander 
in  the  field  with  the  responsibility  of  what  I  may  call  the 
local  diplomacy  of  the  war  as  well  as  with  the  direction  of 
the  military  operations  undertaken  to  secure  the  great 
national  objects  aimed  at. 

Our  history  teems  with  useful  warnings  upon  this  point, 
as  for  instance  in  the  Low  Countries,  where  the  Dutch 
Deputies  with  Marlborough's  army  were  allowed  to  influence 
and  in  some  instance  to  control  the  plans  and  movements 
of  that  great  general.  The  story  of  those  two  wars  warns 
us  never  again  to  send  a  civilian  commissioner  into  the 
theatre  of  war  to  exercise  any  authority  over  the  general 
commanding  the  troops  employed. 

In  the  official  letter  informing  me  that  I  had  been  selected 

269 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

to  command  the  forces  and  to  assume  the  civil  administra- 
tion of  the  Gold  Coast,  Mr.  Cardwell  wound  up  by  im- 
pressing upon  me  that  "  nothing  but  a  conviction  of 
necessity  would  induce  Her  Majesty's  Government  to  en- 
gage in  any  operations  involving  the  possibility  of  its 
requiring  the  service  of  Europeans  at  the  Gold  Coast." 

Upon  me  was  thus  thrown  the  responsibility  of  forming 
an  opinion  on  the  spot  whether  the  necessities  of  the 
position  did  or  did  not  require  the  employment  of  British 
troops  in  the  coming  campaign,  whilst  the  Cabinet  re- 
served to  itself  the  final  decision  of  whether  they  would  or 
would  not  furnish  such  troops  if  I  asked  for  them. 

I  think  it  might  be  safely  asserted  that  at  the  beginning 
of  1873  not  five  per  cent,  of  the  English  people  had  ever 
heard  of  the  Ashantee  kingdom.  I  might  as  truthfully 
add,  that  out  of  every  thousand  of  such  enlightened  beings, 
very  few  indeed  knew  much  about  its  geography  or  its 
history.  The  world  in  general  had  a  sort  of  vague  un- 
defined notion  that  in  the  days  when  we  recognized  domes- 
tic slavery  in  our  colonies  its  king  dealt  largely  in  human 
flesh  with  the  slave  traders  :  and  furthermore,  that  the 
Ashantee  nation  was  known  to  be  the  most  warlike  in  the 
region,  and  had  not  hesitated  upon  several  occasions  to 
invade  the  white  man's  territory,  and  even  to  attack  his 
fortified  castles  which  had  been  erected  in  the  slave-dealers' 
interests.  The  Dutch  and  the  Portuguese  held  some  of 
these  castles.  Elmina,  formerly  Dutch,  had  recently  become 
British,  a  circumstance  which  many  ignorantly  thought 
had  brought  about  this  war.  To  the  English  of  1873  who 
knew  something  more  of  West  Africa  than  what  is  learnt 
from  school  geography,  the  Ashantees  were  associated  with 
the  serious  defeat  they  had  inflicted  upon  us  about  fifteen 

270 


LORD    KIMBERLEY 

miles  inland  just  half  a  century  before,  as  already  men- 
tioned. Upon  that  occasion  our  native  allies  bolted  soon 
after  the  first  volley,  and  the  native  army  we  had  trusted 
to  stem  the  Ashantee  invasion  followed  their  example, 
leaving  to  his  fate  their  general,  who  was  also  the  governor 
of  our  Cape  Coast  possessions. 

Whilst  our  preparations  for  this  campaign  were  in  pro- 
gress, I  heard  many  say,  "  Why  not  abandon  the  Gold 
Coast  altogether  ?  It  can  be  no  longer  worth  our  while 
to  spend  money  upon  a  country  whose  climate  is  deadly 
to  us  and  which  must  always  be  a  source  of  worry  and 
danger  ?  " 

Peace-loving  as  Lord  Kimberley  undoubtedly  was,  he 
took  no  such  small  churchwarden  view  of  our  Imperial 
responsibilities,  and  I  presume  he  had  induced  Mr.  Glad- 
stone to  see  the  matter  in  a  similar  light.  Both  he  and 
Mr.  CardweU  were  devoted  to  peace,  but  neither  would, 
according  to  my  estimate  of  their  characters,  have  shrunk 
from  war  when  it  had  become  in  their  opinion  a  national 
necessity.  In  this  instance  both  were  satisfied  that  we 
could  not  avoid  it  with  any  shred  of  national  dignity,  nor 
with  any  honest  care  for  the  future.  Lord  Kimberley, 
though  a  very  able  man  and  a  strong  Colonial  Minister, 
was  a  great  talker.  His  idea  of  a  conversation  upon  an 
important  business  resolved  itself  into  a  long  and  able 
monologue.  When  he  had  exhausted  the  subject — and 
sometimes  his  listener  also — he  would  shake  him  by  the 
hand,  say  the  conversation  (!)  had  been  most  useful  and 
instructive,  and  that  he  was  much  obliged  for  the  interview. 

How  shall  I  describe  Mr.  CardweU,  the  greatest  Minister 
I  ever  served  with  at  the  War  Office  ?  He  was  the  only 
civilian  Secretary  of  State  I  ever  knew  who  understood 

271 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

what  military  administration  meant,  or  who  had  any  fixed 
ideas  of  the  principles  upon  which  an  army  should  be 
organized  for  rapid  mobilization.  It  was  a  pleasure  to 
work  with  so  able  a  statesman,  and  one  could  always  trust 
him  implicitly.  To  him  we  owe  the  abolition  of  purchase 
and  the  establishment  of  our  present  military  system. 
Knowing  what  a  large  army  that  system  recently  enabled 
us  to  send  to  South  Africa,  I  feel  we  can  never  as  a  nation 
be  sufficiently  grateful  to  his  memory.  But  he  never  could 
have  carried  out  his  reforms  in  the  face  of  the  howling 
opposition  they  met  with  from  what  is  commonly  known 
as  "  society,"  and  also  from  the  Army  with  its  thousand 
ramifications  amongst  the  "  better  classes,"  had  it  not  been 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  reposed  implicit  confidence  in  the 
wisdom  and  discretion  of  his  old  and  firm  friend,  Edward 
Cardwell.  To  Mr.  Gladstone  all  Army  questions  were  un- 
congenial. But  he  understood  in  a  very  general  way  that 
the  system  which  allowed,  say,  a  stupid  major  to  jump 
over  the  head  of  a  clever  senior  because  the  former  could, 
and  the  latter  could  not,  afford  to  pay  a  few  thousand 
pounds  for  the  promotion,  must  be  an  absurdity,  an  in- 
justice to  individuals  and  such  a  serious  injury  to  the  State 
that  it  could  not  be  defended  with  any  show  of  reason. 
But  if  he  would  not  study  Army  questions  himself,  he 
believed  so  thoroughly  in  his  friend's  good  sense,  calm  and 
logical  judgement,  upon  questions  which  he  knew  Mr. 
Cardwell  had  studied  thoroughly,  that  without  hesitation 
he  accepted  his  advice,  and  placed  Army  Reform  high  in 
the  political  programme  of  his  party. 

Except  those  who  worked  with  and  for  Mr.  Cardwell 
few  know  the  difficulties  he  had  to  overcome  when  all 
"  society,"  and  almost  the  whole  Army,  was  against  him. 

272 


CONSTANT  UNPREPAREDNESS  FOR  WAR 

Honest,  straightforward,  able,  clear-sighted  and  deter- 
mined, full  of  amiable  qualities,  he  carried  out  the  herculean 
task  he  had  resolved  to  attempt,  but  the  effort  killed  him. 
Never  was  Minister  in  my  time  more  generally  hated  by 
the  Army  and  by  almost  all  its  old-fashioned  and  un- 
thinking officers.  And  yet,  looking  back  now  over  the 
quarter  of  a  century  we  have  since  lived  through,  I  can 
think  of  no  one  man  whose  memory  and  whose  great  ser- 
vices entitle  him  to  be  remembered  with  such  gratitude  by 
all  ranks  of  the  Army,  by  the  nation,  aye,  and  by  the 
Empire  at  large.  What  misfortune  such  a  War  Minister 
would  have  recently  saved  us  ! 

The  public  are  very  justly  angry  that  we  had  not  all 
the  stores  required  for  the  mobilization  of  our  army  when 
Mr.  Kruger  declared  war.  But  for  the  fact  that  we  were 
able  to  find  the  great  number  of  trained  men  we  did,  we 
are  certainly  indebted  to  the  army  system  which  Mr. 
Cardwell  created  in  the  teeth  of  the  direst  and  most  in- 
fluential opposition  that  any  great  public  measure  ever 
encountered  in  my  time. 

When  will  the  people  realize  that  they  must  never  hope 
to  have  an  Army  ready  for  rapid  mobilization  under  our 
present  Army  system  ?  We  are  never  allowed  to  keep  in 
store  the  war-plant  required  for  that  object.  After  a  war, 
our  War  Ministers  prefer  to  live  for  years  upon  the 
military  stores  purchased  during  its  progress.  To  provide 
for  future  contingencies  is  not  a  dogma  of  party  Govern- 
ment.    The  reason  is  evident. 


VOL,  II.  273 


w 


CHAPTER    XLIV 

War   Service   on   the   Gold    Coast,    1873-4 
E  had  been  assured  by  many  who  professed  to  know 


the  West  Coast  of  Africa  well,  that  whilst  our  Fantee 
allies  were  only  remarkable  for  their  cowardice,  the  Ashan- 
tees  were  irresistible  demons  whom  no  neighbouring  tribes 
would  face.  Indeed,  if  gloomy  forebodings  could  have 
prevented  the  expedition  I  should  never  have  seen  Koo- 
massee.  The  newspapers  teemed  with  letters  describing 
the  difficulties  to  be  overcome  and  the  impossibility  of  any 
British  troops  ever  reaching  that  city.  That  dreadful  crea- 
ture, "  One  Who  Knows,"  and  those  twin  brothers,  "  The 
Man  on  The  Spot  "  and  "  The  Man  who  has  Been  There,"  all 
whined  in  chorus  as  dogs  do  at  the  ringing  of  a  church 
bell.  The  croakings  of  some  were  even  couched  in  terms 
that  read  more  like  the  menace,  "  undertake  it  at  your 
peril  and  if  you  dare"  than  friendly  advice  to  their 
countrymen  in  a  difficult  position.  The  warning,  "  Mene, 
mene,  tekel  upharsin,"  was  not  more  emphatic  than  the 
gloomy  prognostics  these  false  prophets  shrieked  at  all 
who  presumed  to  differ  from  them.  An  engineer  officer 
of  high  position  who  had  served  on  the  Gold  Coast,  upon 
being  asked  by  a  friend  what  he  had  better  take  with  him 
there  in  the  shape  of  "  kit,"  replied,  "  A  coffin  ;  it  is  all 
you  will  require."     Many  had  what  our  American  friends 

274 


DEADLINESS    OF    THE    CLIMATE 

would  designate  "  axes  to  grind "  on  their  own  behalf,  ; 
and  were  furious  because  they  were  not  allowed  to  start 
some  impossible  railroad  to  the  Prah,  or  other  wild  plans 
of  their  own  conception.  If  we  attempted  to  march  poor 
ignorant  English  soldiers  through  that  dense  and  deadly 
bush  we  should  be — it  was  asserted — lured  into  traps  from 
which  not  even  one  would  escape  to  describe  what  had 
befallen  the  rest. 

These  prophets  of  evil  assumed  the  attitude  one  might 
expect  from  Cassandra  mourning  over  the  folly  of  those 
who  refused  to  listen  to  her  warnings.  Such,  however,  are 
the  vagaries  of  this  class  of  human  beings  that  each  and 
aU  of  those  who  denounced  our  folly  and  our  sin  for  pre- 
suming to  undertake  what  they  had  pronounced  im- 
possible were  quite  wiUing  to  undertake  the  job  if  the 
Government  would  entrust  them  with  it.  That  was  the 
weak  side  of  their  sermons  upon  the  pestilential  climate  of 
Ashantee,  and  it  stamped  the  preachers,  not  only  as  illogical 
but  as  tainted  with  personal  interest.  When  I  left  England 
the  troops  upon  the  Gold  Coast  were  the  2nd  West  India 
Regiment,  and  very  smaU  detachments  of  the  marines,  in 
all  thirty  officers  and  770  rank  and  file.  Of  them,  one  officer 
and  146  were  sick.  It  was  appalling  to  find  that  of  the 
130  Englishmen  ashore,  only  twenty-two  were  fit  for  duty. 
It  was  not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at  that  Ministers 
should  have  long  hesitated  to  embark  in  a  war  for  which 
their  military  advisers  required  the  services  of  British 
troops  who  would  most  probably  suffer  in  like  proportion. 

The  day  before  I  left  London  to  embark  at  Liverpool,  there 
had  been  read  to  me  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  by 
Mr.  Cardwell  to  a  high  official,  in  which  he  said  of  me  : 
"  It  only  remains  now  to  hope  that  he  will  have  the  moral 

275 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

courage,  if  there  be  impossibilities  in  his  way,  to  look  them 
fairly  in  the  face,  to  report  them  accurately,  and  leave 
us  " — meaning  the  Cabinet — "  to  take  upon  ourselves  the 
responsibility  of  dealing  with  them.  Bad  as  such  a  con- 
clusion would  be,  yet  if  it  be  based  upon  truth  it  must  be 
accepted."  I  was  assured  at  the  time  of  the  confidence 
Mr.  Cardwell  and  the  Cabinet  generally  reposed  in  me, 
which  was  very  gratifying. 

I  was  allowed  to  select  whatever  officers  I  required  for 
the  native  regiments  it  was  my  intention  to  raise  locally, 
and  also  those  whom  I  wanted  for  staff  duties.  It  was 
evident  that  the  most  serious  enemy  to  be  encountered 
was  the  climate,  usually  considered  the  worst  in  all  our 
foreign  possessions.  The  majority  of  those  I  selected  for 
these  duties  were  Staff  College  officers  which  in  itself  was 
a  new  departure  in  such  matters.  I  do  not  believe  that 
any  general  ever  left  England  with  an  abler  or  more  daring 
body  of  assistants  than  I  did  upon  that  occasion. 

The  steamship  Ambriz,  in  which  my  party  of  thirty-five 
carefully  selected  officers  embarked  at  Liverpool  on 
September  12,  1873,  was  the  most  abominable  and  un- 
healthy craft  I  ever  made  a  voyage  in.  The  smell  of  bilge 
water  and  of  bad  new  paint  with  which  she  reeked 
poisoned  several  of  us,  and  the  inmates  of  any  workhouse 
would  have  complained  of  the  food.  But  these,  as  I  have 
said,  were  small  matters  to  men  full,  as  we  all  were,  of  hope, 
ambition  and  energy.  Many  whom  we  left  behind  regarded 
us  as  foolhardy  idiots  who  having  rashly  volunteered  for  a 
hopeless  venture  they  never  expected  to  see  again.  But 
these  sadly  coloured  pictures  of  what  was  in  store  for  us 
had  no  effect  upon  the  spirits  of  my  tireless  companions, 
men   for  whom  danger  seemed  to  have  a  strong  attraction. 

276 


MY  COMPANIONS  ON   THE  VOYAGE 

All  were  young — I,  their  leader,  one  of  the  oldest  of  the 
group,  was  only  forty,  and  all  laughed  at  danger  and  made 
light  of  trials.  Though  fully  conscious  of  the  difficulties 
to  be  met  and  overcome,  no  party  on  pleasure  bent  was 
ever  gayer  or  apparently  more  light-hearted.  What  is  it 
you  cannot  accomplish  with  men  well  chosen  from  our 
Army ! 

The  general  longing  of  my  party  to  face  the  horrors  they 
were  told  of,  and  to  meet  an  enemy  thus  described,  made 
all  feel  like  comrades  who  had  volunteered  for  some 
forlorn  hope.  Any  contemplation  of  impending  trials 
served  only  to  whet  our  zest  for  the  enterprise  in  which 
all  had  so  gladly  embarked.  Gloomy  thoughts  were  stifled 
in  the  daily  discussions  of  plans  for  overcoming  the  diffi- 
culties we  expected  to  encounter,  and  this  community  of 
aims  and  ambitions  made  us  firm  comrades,  a  true  "  band 
of  brothers,"  full  of  joy  and  hope  at  the  prospect  before  us. 
A  longing  for  distinction,  to  do  something  that  those  at 
home  would  think  well  of,  filled  our  cup  of  pleasure  to  the 
brim.  All  other  considerations  were  thrown  overboard  ; 
they  were  at  least  ignored  if  not  forgotten.  If  care 
weighed  upon  any  heart  it  was  well  hidden  away,  and 
there  seemed  to  bum  in  every  one  that  determination 
which  mocks  at  all  danger  that  has  to  be  encountered. 
Life  on  board  ship  is  usually  spent  in  silly  games,  idleness 
and  sleep,  but  no  body  of  adventurers  was  ever  more,  if  as, 
studious  as  we  were  during  the  voyage.  When  it  ended 
all  could,  I  think,  have  passed  with  credit  an  examination 
in  the  geography  of  the  country  we  expected  to  campaign 
in.  Piles  of  Blue  Books  containing  years  of  correspondence 
between  Downing  Street  and  our  governors  in  Western 
Africa,  were  closely  examined  for  information  as  to  recent 

277 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

events,  and  all  works  upon  its  early  history  were  eagerly 
devoured. 

To  while  away  the  monotony  of  reading  Blue  Books,  I 
asked  Captains  Brackenbury  and  Huyishe  to  give  lectures 
upon  our  relations  with  the  protected  tribes  and  Ashantees, 
the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  war,  and  the  topography 
of  the  country  which  was  to  be  our  theatre  of  war.  Both 
lectures  were  very  instructive  and  focussed  in  a  small 
compass  aU  that  was  known  upon  those  subjects. 

Twenty-nine  eventful  years  have  come  and  gone  since 
then,  and  as  I  look  over  the  list  of  able  and  gallant  men 
who  were  my  companions,  my  helpmates  in  the  "  adven- 
ture," what  memories  their  names  bring  before  me  !  Some 
were  killed  in  action,  others,  full  of  youth  and  hope,  fell 
stricken  by  the  deadly  pestilence  which  rages  by  day  and 
by  night  in  the  dense  and  deadly  forests  between  the  sea 
and  Koomassee.  But  I  am  proud  to  say  a  large  proportion 
of  the  survivors  have  since  then  written  their  names  clearly 
upon  the  pages  of  our  national  history. 

I  felt  that  ordinary  men  could  not  be  good  enough  for 
the  work  I  had  undertaken.  I  was  fully  aware  of  its  many 
peculiar  difficulties,  and  had  taken  care  to  surround  myself 
with  those  whom  I  could  trust,  and  whom  I  felt  had  a  similar 
confidence  in  me.  Several  of  them  had  accompanied  me 
three  years  before  in  my  expedition  from  Lake  Superior 
to  the  Red  River  settlement.  Those  were  men  whose 
nerve  I  had  seen  proved  in  the  midst  of  physical  dangers 
which  silence  the  man  of  ordinary  manufacture,  and  blanch 
many  a  cheek.  I  knew  I  could  rely  upon  them  in  the 
"  tightest  "  of  places,  and  that  no  risk  of  any  sort  would 
appal  them.  Captain,  now  General,  Sir  Redvers  Buller, 
of  the  Royal  Rifles,  was  first  and  foremost  amongst  them 

278 


THE  MEN  OF  MY   STAFF 

as  one  whose  stern  determination  of  character  nothing  could 
ruffle,  whose  resource  in  difficulty  was  not  surpassed  by 
any  one  I  ever  knew.  Endowed  with  a  mind  fruitful 
in  expedients,  cool  and  calm  in  the  face  of  every  danger, 
he  inspired  general  confidence,  and  thoroughly  deserved 
it.  Had  a  thunderbolt  burst  at  his  feet  he  would  have 
merely  brushed  from  his  rifle  jacket  the  earth  it  had 
thrown  upon  him  without  any  break  in  the  sentence  he 
happened  to  be  uttering  at  the  moment.  He  was  a 
thorough  soldier,  a  practised  woodman,  a  skilful  boatman 
in  the  most  terrifying  of  rapids,  and  a  man  of  great  physical 
strength  and  endurance. 

My  chief  of  the  staff  was  Lieut.-Col.  John  McNeill,  who 
had  also  shared  in  the  hard  work  of  the  Red  River  ex- 
pedition. Daring,  determined,  self-confident  and  inde- 
fatigable, he  was  not  a  man  I  should  have  liked  to  meet 
as  my  enemy  in  action.  He  was  a  first-rate  man  to  organize 
success  under  difficult  conditions.  He  was  never  cast 
down  by  bad  luck,  and  always  cheery  no  matter  how  dis- 
couraging might  be  the  immediate  or  apparent  prospect 
of  the  position.  He  was  badly  hit  in  our  first  affair  of  any 
marked  importance.  I  was  standing  beside  a  gun,  then 
in  action,  when  he  came  out  of  the  bush  near  it,  supporting 
one  horribly  wounded  arm  with  the  other,  and  exclaimed 
in  angry  and  indignant  tones,  as  if  someone  had  deeply 
insulted  him,  "  An  infernal  scoundrel  out  there  has  shot 
me  through  the  arm."  All  the  muscles,  tendons  and 
sinews  of  his  wrist  had  been  cut  through  by  a  bullet  fired 
close  to  him,  and  stood  out  like  strands  of  an  unravelled 
rope's  end,  causing  me  to  think  in  my  surgical  ignorance 
that  a  man  so  wounded  must  die  of  lockjaw  :  this  is  an 
old  Army  superstition    regarding  wounds  of  that  nature. 

279 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

All  thought  of  the  pain,  which  must  have  been  great,  was 
swallowed  up  in  his  sheer  anger  at  being  thus  knocked 
over  in  our  first  affair,  and  thus  cut  off  from  all  chance  of 
seeing  the  war  through.  This  bespoke  his  character 
thoroughly,  and  I  mention  it  because  it  was  this  feeling 
which,  animating  the  officers  who  took  part  in  the  campaign, 
enabled  me  to  finish  it  so  quickly  and  satisfactorily. 

My  medical  adviser  having  told  me  not  to  reckon  upon 
McNeill  for  the  coming  campaign,  I  at  once  sent  home  for 
Colonel  Greaves  to  succeed  him  as  chief  of  the  staff,  with  the 
duties  of  which  position  he  was  thoroughly  well  acquainted. 
Indeed,  he  knew  our  Army,  its  regulations,  and  customs 
better  than  any  one  I  ever  served  with.  A  clever  and 
determined  man,  of  iron  will  and  tireless  energy,  he  was 
daring  to  a  fault,  with  strong  opinions — I  might  even  add 
prejudices — he  understood  both  the  science  and  the  art 
of  his  profession.  A  good  sportsman,  strong  and  healthy 
in  body  and  resolute  in  mind,  he  was  intended  to  be  the 
right  hand  to  a  leader  possessing  a  spirit  and  aspirations 
congenial  to  his  own.  Indeed  no  general  could  have  had  a 
better  man  at  his  side,  and  no  one  was  ever  better  or  more 
ably  served  than  I  was  by  him. 

My  military  secretary  was  Captain  Henry  Brackenbury, 
and  my  private  secretary  Lieutenant  Frederick  Maurice. 
Both  were  artillerymen  and  strangers  to  me  at  the  time, 
but  I  chose  them  as  men  remarkable  for  their  ability,  and 
because  both  were  thoroughly  well  versed  in  the  science 
of  their  profession.  The  former  is  not  only  a  profound 
reasoner  with  a  strong  wiU  and  a  logical  mind,  but — that 
rare  man  to  find  in  our  Army — a  first-rate  man  of  business 
and  an  indefatigable  worker  also.  Whatever  he  under- 
takes   he  performs  admirably  and  thoroughly.      Had  he 

280 


SIR  HENRY  BRACKENBURY 

adopted  some  less  noble  but  more  paying  occupation  in 
life  than  the  Army  he  would  have  made  a  fortune.  He 
spoke  remarkably  well,  and  had  he  made  politics  his  career, 
I  have  no  doubt  he  would  have  risen  to  a  very  high  position 
in  that  questionable  trade.  Had  he  never  accomplished 
anything  else  for  the  State  than  the  great  services  he 
rendered  England  throughout  our  recent  and  curiously 
prolonged  war  in  South  Africa,  he  might  indeed  be  well 
satisfied  with  what  he  had  done  for  his  country.  I  do 
not  know  an  officer  who  could  have  performed  equally  well 
the  heavy  and  responsible  duties  which  fell  to  his  lot  at  the 
War  Office  during  the  last  three  years.  England  was 
indeed  fortunate  to  possess  so  able  and  untiring  a  soldier- 
administrator  when  Messrs.  Kruger  and  Company  forced 
war  upon  us,  for  as  usual — as  has  been,  and  always  must 
be  the  case  under  our  unbusinesslike  War  Office  system 
— we  were  unprepared  for  war  upon  any  large  scale. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  describe  my  staunch  old  friend 
General  Sir  Frederick  Maurice.  His  fervid  imagination 
and  brilliant  intellect,  helped  by  a  deep  study  of  strategy 
and  an  inexhaustible  amount  of  stored-up  military  inform- 
ation, marks  him  out  as  one  of  our  great  military  thinkers 
and  best  writers  upon  the  science  and  art  of  war.  The  son 
of  a  man  whose  brain  power  and  whose  manly  courage  he 
has  inherited,  he  would  have  distinguished  himself  in  what- 
ever walk  of  life  he  adopted.  As  a  lieutenant  in  1872,  he 
was  the  successful  competitor  for  the  Wellington  Prize 
Essay  upon  War.  His  essay  was  far  above  those  of  the 
other  competitors,  of  whom  I  was  one.  When  I  selected 
him  to  be  one  of  my  officers  in  the  Ashantee  War,  I  only 
knew  him  as  the  man  who  had  so  easily  beaten  me  upon 
that  occasion,  but  I  felt  that  the  man  who  possessed  the 

281 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

thinking  and  reasoning  power  which  his  essay  displayed 
should  be  given  the  chance  of  adding  practice  to  precept. 
Since  then  we  have  been  constant  companions,  both  at  home 
and  in  many  campaigns,  and  I  feel  it  a  privilege  to  count 
him  not  only  amongst  my  ablest  and  bravest  comrades, 
but  as  one  of  my  best  friends. 

My  commanding  Royal  Engineer  was  Captain  R.  Home, 
in  many  ways  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  I  have  ever 
known.     I  had  been  acquainted  with  him  for  several  years, 
and  picked  him  out  as  being  just  the  man  I  wanted  for 
that  position  in  the  trying  and  difficult  work  before  us.     I 
never  had  cause  in  any  way  to  regret  my  selection.      This 
was  his  first  campaign,  and  no  one  strove  harder  to  make 
it  a  success,  though  all  those  around  me  did  as  much.     An 
able,    daring    and    imaginative    Irishman,  he    was  full  of 
resource.     Inclined  to  be  egotistical  and  somewhat  vain 
of  his  great  talents,  he  had  an  ineradicable  repugnance  to 
admit  he  was  unable  to  give  detailed  answers  to  all  questions, 
on  aU  subjects,  whether  great  or  smaU,  that  any  one  put  to 
him.     This  failing  caused  him  to  be  at  times  a  somewhat 
unsafe  guide.     But  as  this  peculiarity  was  weU  known  to 
his   comrades — who   sometimes   practised  amusingly  upon 
it — it  did  not  interfere  with  his  great  and  undoubted  use- 
fulness.    It  was  during  this  little  war  that  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  high  opinion  so  generally  entertained  of 
him  ever  after  by  all  those  who  knew  him  best.     He  died 
five  years  later,  broken  down,  as  I  believe,  by  the  strain 
of  a  too  long  continued  over-taxing  of  his  great  mental  and 
physical  powers  in  the  public  service.     By  his  death  the 
Queen  lost  one  of  her  very  ablest  soldiers.     The  day  his 
death  was  announced,  a  friend  found  Lord  Beaconsfield  in 
tears  sitting  over  his  fire.    To  that  friend,  ^who  told  me  the 

282 


EVELYN    WOOD   AND   BAKER  RUSSELL 

story,  the  great  Minister  said  he  had  just  lost,  by  Colonel 
Home's  death,  an  officer  of  whose  talents  he  had  so  good 
an  opinion  that  he  had  long  designed  him  for  high  and 
important  employment. 

Amongst  the  many  keen  soldiers  around  me,  none  worked 
more  unremittingly,  or  with  a  noble  daring  more  wisely 
governed  by  thoughtful  prudence,  than  Lord  Gifford. 
Throughout  the  whole  advance  beyond  the  River  Prah  he 
had  charge  of  the  scouts,  with  whom  he  lived  and  into  whom 
he  was  almost  able  to  infuse  some  real  pluck.  But  yet  upon 
occasions  aU  bolted  and  left  him,  and  how  he  lived  through 
his  many  daily  dangers  and  hair-breadth  escapes  was  a 
wonder  to  everyone.  Always  well  ahead  of  our  advance 
posts,  he  had  a  hard  time  of  it.  But  continuous  danger, 
bad  and  scanty  food,  constant  exposure  in  such  a  climate, 
no  shelter  from  rain,  and  no  white  man  as  a  companion, 
these  were  trials  and  drawbacks  to  comfort  which  had  no 
effect  upon  him.  If  ever  a  man  daily  and  hourly  carried 
his  life  in  his  hand,  he  certainly  did  so  until  we  reached 
Koomassee. 

From  the  best  fighting  materials  I  could  find  at  hand,  I 
intended  to  raise  two  special  battalions,  one  to  be  under 
Colonel  Evelyn  Wood,  the  other  under  Colonel  Baker 
Russell,  Both  were  able  men,  designed  by  their  Maker 
to  be  dashing  and  excellent  leaders.  There  was  great 
rivalry  between  their  respective  battalions,  and  if  by  chance 
one  came  in  for  more  fighting  than  the  other,  the  less  fortun- 
ate commander  and  his  officers  resented  it,  not  only  as  a 
grievance,  but  as  a  slight.  More  than  once  I  had  to  smooth 
down  the  ruffled  feathers  of  each  in  turn.  Their  officers 
were  all  carefully  selected  men  who  I  knew  could  be 
depended  upon  implicitly,  under  all  circumstances. 

283 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

During  our  preliminary  operations,  when  engaged  in 
driving  back  the  Ashantees  into  their  own  territory,  the 
strain  upon  all  my  special-service  officers  was  great.  They 
would  never  confess  they  were  ill  until  they  were  nearly 
dead.  I  lost  many  a  gallant  comrade  in  consequence.  My 
A.D.C.,  handsome,  gallant  young  Alfred  Charteris,  was  one 
of  these.  The  great  fatigue  he  underwent  in  our  first  fight 
was  too  much  for  his  strength  and  constitution.  He  would 
go  out  with  me  that  day,  and  though  I  tried  to  dissuade 
him,  when  he  persisted,  I  had  not  the  heart  to  refuse  him. 
The  cheeriest  of  comrades  at  all  times,  ever  keen  to  take 
part  in  any  dangerous  duty,  I  grudged — as  well  I  might — 
the  "  monster  Death  "  his  prey.  But  he  was  doomed,  and 
I  lost  in  him  a  comrade  I  had  learned  to  love,  and  England 
had  to  mourn  for  one  of  her  keenest  and  most  daring 
soldiers,  one  of  the  best  and  most  charming  of  her  sons. 
Loyal,  gallant  soul,  may  we  serve  together  as  comrades  in 
that  better  land  where  he  now  "  does  duty." 

I  could  dilate  with  equal  truth  and  pleasure  upon  the 
splendid  characteristics  of  many  others  of  my  companions 
in  this  Ashantee  War.  Without  them,  or  with  the  very 
ordinary  humdrum  men  then  usually  told  off  for  special 
service  from  a  "  Horse-Guards  Roster,"  we  could  not  have 
achieved  what  we  did  with  the  rapidity  and  with  the 
clock-work  punctuality  which  characterized  all  our  proceed- 
ings. I  sincerely  trust  that  in  the  true  interests  of  the 
nation,  for  whose  service  our  Army  exists,  no  out-of-date, 
clap-trap,  or  Regulation  notions  as  to  the  rights  and 
claims  of  seniors  may  ever  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the 
selection  of  the  best  officers  in  the  Army  for  all  the  little 
campaigns  we  have  so  often  to  carry  out  in  horribly  un- 
healthy countries.       When  special  troops  have  to  be  raised, 

284 


THE   WEST   AFRICAN  CITIES 

specially  selected  officers  only  should  be  sent  with  them, 
and  aU  claims  on  the  ground  of  seniority  must  be  ruthlessly 
ignored. 

We  called  at  Madeira,  at  Las  Palmas  in  the  Canaries,  and 
at  Sierra  Leone,  the  business  port  of  Western  Africa.     That 
beautiful  spot  is  surrounded  by  low  green  hills  which,  thick 
with  tropical  jungle  and  abundantly  luxurious  vegetation, 
please  the  eye  and  make  one  almost  forget  that  it  is  well 
named  the   "  Grave  of  the  Englishman."     The  bed-rock, 
wherever  exposed,  is  dark  red  in  colour,  and  I  think  the 
church  and  a  few  big  houses  have  been  built  of  it,  but  if 
so,  in  common  with  all  other  habitations  they  have  been 
white-washed  over.     The  turkey  buzzard  is  to  be  seen  here 
in  large  numbers  sitting  upon  the  church  top  and  other 
roofs.     They  are  loathsome  to  look  at,  but  are  most  useful 
as  scavengers.     Horses  will  not  live  here  nor  at  Cape  Coast 
Castle,  though  they  do  so  at  Accra.     The  mountain  called 
Sierra    Leone,  after    which    the  place  is  named,  is    over 
2,000  feet  high.^     The  news  of  August  26  from  Cape  Coast 
Castle,  told  us  of  the  enemy's  attack  upon  Dix  Cove  and 
that  Commodore  Commerell  had  been  badly  wounded.     I 
felt  this  much,  for  I  had  looked  forward  with  great  satis- 
faction to  having  so  distinguished  a  sailor  as  my  naval 
colleague,  knowing  that  he  was  to  be  depended  on  under 
all  circumstances.     We  all  enjoyed  our  short  stay  ashore 
at  Sierra  Leone. 

After  an  uneventful  voyage  of  three  weeks,  we  anchored 
off  Cape  Coast  Castle  on  October  2,  and,  with  all  the 
pomp  I  could  lend  the  proceedings  by  a  miUtary  display, 
I  landed  that  same  evening  through  the  surf,  which  beats 

1  Milton  says  in  Paradise  Lost  :  "  Black  with  thund'rous  clouds 
from  Sierra  Leone." 

285 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

ceaselessly  upon  its  sandy  shores.  I  was  anxious  to  impress 
the  inhabitants  with  the  fact  that  a  new  species  of  Gover- 
nor, a  fighting  soldier,  had  arrived  to  rule  them.  I  was 
sworn  in  amidst  the  firing  of  salutes,  and  at  once  took  up 
my  abode  in  Government  House. 

It  is  a  good  substantial  brick  building,  plastered  over 
and  coloured  white,  as  indeed  are  all  the  houses  in  the  town. 
A  high  flight  of  masonry  steps  leads  to  the  first  floor,  on 
which  are  the  reception  rooms.  In  front  was  a  small 
garden,  from  whose  brick-coloured  earth  sprang  extremely 
brilliant  flowers,  through  which  flitted  curious  lizards 
emblazoned,  as  it  were,  all  over  in  bright  heraldic  pigments. 
It  was  hemmed  in  unfortunately  on  all  sides  by  a  very 
insanitary  town  of  blindingly  white  houses  filled  almost 
exclusively  with  negroes,  there  being  very  few  half-castes 
in  the  place.  It  was  pleasant  to  see  the  well-set-up  West 
Indian  soldier  sauntering  about  the  streets  in  all  the  pride 
of  a  picturesque  uniform,  and  of  that  superiority  which 
regimental  disciphne  engenders.  But  the  noise  of  the 
negro  population,  the  horrible  smells  everywhere,  rob  the 
evening  walk  of  enjoyment. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  first  night  I  spent  at  Cape  Coast 
Castle.  All  through  life  I  have  been  blessed  with  the 
will-power  of  going  to  sleep  whenever  I  wished  to  do  so. 
But  upon  this  occasion  I  awoke  about  midnight  without 
any  apparent  reason.  Having  listened  a  few  minutes, 
I  became  aware  of  what  sounded  like  the  discharge  at  a 
considerable  distance,  and  at  regular  intervals,  of  some 
monster  piece  of  heavy  ordnance  which  made  the  earth 
shake,  as  it  were,  at  each  succeeding  round.  I  soon  realized 
it  was  but  the  ceaseless  beating  of  that  calmly  but  beautiful 
yet  cruel-looking  sea  as  it  rolls  smoothly  and  grandly  in 

286 


THE  WEST  COAST  SURF 

from  the  wide,  wide  western  ocean.  Each  swelling  wave 
slowly  follows  its  predecessor  with  apparently  all  the  re- 
morselessness  of  fate  to  break  at  regular  intervals  upon 
that  ever  surf-beaten  shore  with  a  noise  as  loud  as  the 
distant  fall  of  a  thunderbolt. 

When  subsequently  I  grew  accustomed  to  its  roar  through 
the  live-long  night,  there  was  something  awe-inspiring  yet 
fascinating  in  its  pulse-like  cadence.  Those  who  on  that 
hateful  coast  have  tossed  through  the  long  hours  of  a  night 
made  sleepless  and  horrible  by  fever,  can  never  forget  that 
sound.  It  falls  on  the  over-wrought,  misery-stricken 
brain,  much  as  the  ticking  of  Time's  pendulum  must  on 
the  ear  of  the  man  condemned  to  die  next  morning.  But 
it  also  reminds  you  of  how  often  in  the  fresh,  cool  air  of 
the  rising  summer  tide  at  home  you  have  heard  the  sea 
break  with  a  soft  hissing  murmur  upon  a  pebbly  shore. 


287 


CHAPTER   XLV 
Cape  Coast   Castle   and   its    Slave   Pens 

I  FOUND  plenty  of  work  awaiting  me,  and  of  all  the 
prophylactic  physic  I  have  ever  taken  in  a  bad 
climate,  hard,  constant  and  imperative  duties  constitute 
the  best.  The  morning  after  my  arrival  I  walked  about 
"  my  capital,"  desirous  of  liking  it  and  its  people  ;  but 
although  it  has  been  some  centuries  in  the  hands  of 
Europeans  I  found  the  town  negro  an  objectionable 
animal.  His  vanity,  pretensions,  his  vulgar  swagger, 
made  one  feel  how  much  more  usefiil  he  would  be  if  we  had 
never  emancipated  him.  The  term  "slave"  jars  upon  our 
ears,  and  yet  the  more  one  sees  of  the  negro  at  Cape  Coast, 
the  more  one  realizes  that  he  was  intended  to  be  the  white 
man's  servant.  Amongst  other  places  I  visited  the 
old  castle,  built  originally  by  the  Portuguese,  which  stiU 
has  the  armorial  bearings  of  that  nation  over  its  gate. 
There  I  saw  the  horrible  dens  in  which  the  slaves,  purchased 
from  the  interior,  and  chiefly  from  the  Ashantees,  used 
formerly  to  be  immured  until  some  slaver  arrived  to  take 
them  to  be  sold  like  cattle  in  the  colonies.  Those  dungeons 
made  me  realize  with  what  truth  John  Wesley  had  denounced 
the  slave  trade  as  "  that  execrable  sum  of  all  villainies." 
Let  the  man  who  would  question  that  truth  visit  the  old 
slave  pens  of  Cape  Coast  Castle. 

288 


L:  E.  L.'S   GRAVE 

The  Castle  presented  an  extremely  busy  and  picturesque 
scene.  Over-worked  Commissariat  Officers — perspiring  from 
e\'ery  pore — were  trying  to  organize  crowds  of  negroes  into 
squads  for  transport  purposes.  Each  man  had  fastened 
round  his  neck  a  zinc  label  on  which  was  stamped  the 
letter  of  his  particular  company.  It  is  no  easy  matter  to 
enforce  silence  in  such  an  assembly,  and  yet  without  it  all 
hope  of  order  is  futile.  The  one  prominent  man  in  the 
crowd  was  Commissary-General  O'Connor.  I  had  selected 
him  for  this  work  because  he  thoroughly  understood  the 
negro  character,  and  had  long  experience  in  dealing  with 
black  races  both  in  the  West  Indies  and  upon  this  very 
coast.  Thousands  of  these  Cape  Coast  negroes  knew  him 
personally,  and  all  knew  him  by  reputation  to  be  a  just 
man,  but  one  who  would  not  submit  to  their  nonsense  : 
whilst  they  feared  him  they  were  fond  of  him.  He  was  a 
man  amongst  many,  and  to  me  he  was  worth  any  thousand 
other  men  I  could  have  found.  He  made  light  of  the 
climate  and  was  an  indefatigable  worker.  A  first-rate 
Commissariat  Officer,  he  could  get  more  out  of  the  negro 
than  any  man  I  ever  met :  he  was  indeed  a  man  after  my 
own  heart. 

I  found  my  Commanding  Royal  Engineer  established 
in  the  room  where  that  unfortunate  but  highly  gifted 
woman,  the  wife  of  Governor  Maclean,  had  been  found  dead 
with  a  bottle  of  prussic  acid  in  her  hand  thirty-three 
years  before.  Outside  those  quarters,  but  below  them, 
there  is  marked  upon  a  stone  of  the  pavement  which  covers 
the  interior  of  the  castle,  the  simple  letters  "  L.  E.  L."  No 
date  is  given  nor  any  particulars  of  the  lady  who  Ues  below 
it.  Her  uncongenial  and  uninteresting  husband  is  also 
buried  there,  but  not  beside  her.     Many  have  striven   to 

VOL.  II.  289  u 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

lift  the  veil  which  shrouds  the  secret  as  to  how  or  why 
she  committed  suicide,  but  that  she  did  kill  herself  is 
generally  recognized  as  a  fact  upon  the  spot.  I  loved  the 
fertile  fancy  of  her  poetry  as  a  boy,  and  I  trust  that  the 
spirit  of  so  gifted  a  woman  may  rest  in  peace  far  away 
from  her  commonplace  husband.  I  don't  think  she  ever 
had  a  chance  in  life.  How  many  there  are  of  whom  this 
can  be  truly  said  ! 

Cruelty  is   ingrained  in  the  African  negro's  disposition. 
To  see  a  fellow  human  being  flogged  or  tortured,  or  killed 
in  any  fashion,  is  to  the  black  man  of  the  West  Coast  a 
positive  pleasure.      It  is  to  him  what  a  good  drama  is  to 
the  European.       Within  a  week  of  my  landing  a  negro 
was  hanged  for  a  cruel  murder,  and  the  whole  black  popu- 
lation turned  out  to  see  the  poor  wretch  expiate  his  offence. 
I   was  busy  writing  in  my  room,   when   I   unexpectedly 
heard  a  surging  howl  of  delight  from  all  the  neighbouring 
streets,   men,   women   and   children   clapping   their  hands 
in  the  excitement  of  the  moment.      Not  knowing  what  it 
meant,  I  looked  out  of  the  window  close  by  where  I  sat, 
and  from  which  the  lighthouse,  near  at  hand,  was  the 
most  prominent  object.      There  I   saw  the  still  writhing 
body  of  this  poor  criminal  as  it  swayed  to  and  fro  from 
the  gallows  to  the  loudly  expressed  pleasure  and  amuse- 
ment of  the  dense  crowds  assembled  to  enjoy  so  rare  a  show. 
I  was  assured  by  those  who  knew  the  negro  best  that  there 
was  no  man  in  the  place  who  would  not  attend  with  great 
enjoyment  to  see  his  own  father  flogged,  so  powerful  was 
the  attraction  that  human  suffering  had  for  the  black  man. 
My  dear  Abolitionist,  do  please  understand  that  this  horrible 
depravity  is  not  the  result  of  what  was  lately  known  as 
slavery  in  America,  and  before  1833  in  our  colonies  also. 

290 


OUR   BLACK    CHAPLAIN 

It  is  as  natural  to  the  curly-headed  man  as  the  colour  of 
his  skin. 

At  Cape  Coast  Castle  we  all  attended  divine  service  every 
Sunday.  The  colonial  chaplain  who  ministered  there 
was  the  very  blackest  of  negroes,  but  had  received  a 
university  education  in  England.  His  salary  was  nearly 
£600  a  year,  and  beyond  reading  the  service  to  about 
thirty  people  on  Sundays  he  did  nothing.  The  episcopal 
schools  were  a  public  disgrace,  and  for  their  condition 
he  was  directly  responsible.  I  remember  hearing  years 
afterwards,  but  I  cannot  vouch  for  the  story,  that  when 
he  was  dying  he  sent  for  the  chief  "  fetish  man  "  of  the 
town,  saying  he  preferred  his  ministrations,  in  which 
he  had  faith,  to  the  consolation  of  the  Christian  religion 
in  which  he  did  not  believe.  So  much  for  our  educated 
West  Coast  of  Africa  converts.  It  was  a  pleasure,  however, 
to  visit  the  Wesleyan  schools,  which  were  well  kept  and 
admirably  looked  after.  How  much  more  earnest  they 
are  than  we  poor  Episcopalians  !  The  headquarters  of  the 
Wesleyan  missions  on  the  coast  is  there,  and  one  cannot 
praise  the  zeal  and  courage  of  their  ministers  too  much. 

There  were  several  substantially  built  houses  in  the 
town,  many  of  them  over  a  century  old.  From  the  shore 
the  sea  looks  generally  smooth  and  seems  to  reflect  the 
yeUow  tints  of  the  sun  on  its  ever  undulating  but  generally 
unbroken  surface.  Along  the  line  of  yellow  sand  that 
marks  its  shore,  the  surf  beats  ceaselessly  and  monotonously. 
As  you  looked  seawards,  every  ship  rolled  horribly  with 
the  regularity  of  a  huge  pendulum,  and  without  cessation: 

Throughout  this  short  but  very  busy  little  campaign  a 
great  deal  was  compressed,  and  had  to  be  almost  unduly 
compressed,  into  a  few  months  from  start  to  finish.      This 

291 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

was  necessary  because  of  the  uncertainty  of  life  even  among 
the  strongest  and  healthiest  Europeans  in  such  a  deadly 
climate. 

I  never  thought  the  war  could  be  effectually  finished 
without  British  troops,  and  I  believed  throughout  that 
they  could  be  employed  for  a  dash  upon  Koomassee  without 
inordinate  risk.  I  was  consequently  anxious,  as  soon 
as  possible,  to  try  the  experiment  of  a  small  fight  with 
the  Ashantees,  in  which  native  levies,  helped  by  the  few 
battalions  I  was  raising  locally  from  the  tribes  of  the  best 
fighting  reputation,  should  be  alone  employed.  The 
sooner  I  could  make  this  trial  the  better,  for  if  it  satisfied 
me  that  British  troops  would  certainly  be  required  the 
sooner  I  demanded  them  from  home  the  sooner  I  should 
be  able  to  finish  the  business. 

I  enlisted  two  classes  of  men,  those  who  belonged  to 
warlike  tribes  who  would  fight,  and  those  who  could  only 
be  depended  upon  as  carriers.  Amongst  the  latter  were 
the  Croomen,  who  are  admirable  boatmen,  and  some  of 
whom  are  usually  to  be  found  on  board  all  our  vessels  of 
war  on  that  station.  But  though  brave  as  boatmen  they 
teU  you  plainly  they  will  not  fight.  Their  God  is  known 
by  the  name  of  "  Duppy,"  and  if  a  Crooman  imagines  he 
has  seen  that  deity  he  lies  down  to  die,  and  dies  very 
shortly.  I  have  been  told  this  by  several  who  knew 
the  Croomen  weU  and  liked  them,  and  I  saw  an  instance 
of  it  up  the  Nile  in  1885,  where  I  employed  many  of  them 
as  boatmen.  They  are  a  cheery  lot  and  real  Neptunes  in 
the  water.  Although  they  won't  fight,  and  fear  Duppy, 
they  have  apparently  no  fear  of  death  or  danger.  But 
I  must  not  pause  to  tell  of  the  various  races  I  enlisted,  for 
they  were  many  and  nearly  all  of    them  cowards  of    a 

292 


CAPTAIN   ARTHUR   RAIT 

pronounced  type  who  dreaded  the  Ashantees.  That  was 
unfortunate  for  me,  for  the  Ashantees  were  the  enemy 
I  wanted  them  to  meet. 

By  far  the  best  fighting  men  to  be  had  were  the  Houssas, 
a  fine  Mohammedan  people  from  far  inland,  near  Lake 
Chad.  I  have  always  attributed  much,  if  not  all,  their 
superiority  as  soldiers  to  the  fact  that  their  worship  of 
one  God  alone,  the  Creator  of  all  things,  elevates  their 
minds  above  the  machinations  and  superstitions  of 
idolatry,  and  raises  them  accordingly  in  spirit  and  in 
courage  above  the  fetish-worshipping  tribes  around  them. 
The  followers  of  the  Prophet  in  all  epochs  and  in  all  countries 
have  proved  themselves  to  be  daring  and  obedient  soldiers, 
and  these  Houssas  are  no  exception  to  that  rule. 

The  Houssas  were  often  wild  in  action  from  lack  of 
discipline,  but  they  were  real  fighting  men,  who  always 
meant  business,  and  would  follow  their  white  officers. 
They  were  the  only  trustworthy  soldiers  at  hand  for  the 
protection  of  Cape  Coast  Castle  with  its  Government 
establishments  and  prosperous  town. 

I  allowed  Captain  Arthur  Rait,  of  the  Horse  ArtiUery,  to 
man  his  guns  exclusively  with  Houssas.  No  men  could 
behave  better  than  they  did  throughout  the  campaign 
under  that  gallant  soul,  now  in  Heaven,  but  who  whilst 
on  earth  was  the  bravest  of  cheery,  determined,  able  and 
loyal  comrades.  A  man  of  cool  courage  whom  no  dangers 
could  daunt,  of  great  physical  endurance,  who  never  spared 
himself  and  who  even  made  light  of  the  fevers  which  at 
times  held  him  in  their  grip.  How  can  England  ade- 
quately repay  the  services  of  such  a  son  ?  How  can  her 
Sovereign  thank  him  sufficiently  ? 

No  one  could  admire  the  courage,   determination  and 

293 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

zeal  of  Captain  Glover  more  than  I  did,  but  looking  back 
now  at  the  events  of  this  campaign,  and  at  the  many  serious 
elements  of  failure  it  embraced,  I  feel,  that  had  the  interests 
of  the  State  been  alone  considered  it  would  have  been 
wiser  to  have  withdrawn  Captain  Glover  altogether  from 
the  coast  when  I  reached  it. 

He  was  a  very  remarkable  man.  I  never  saw  a  face  on 
which  pluck  and  firm  resolve  were  more  legibly  written  ; 
indeed  he  looked  the  man  who  was  born  to  rule  an  African 
dominion.  Endowed  with  an  iron  constitution,  con- 
siderable ability,  and  great  determination  of  character, 
as  administrator  of  the  Government  at  Lagos  he  had  acquired 
much  experience  in  dealing  with  West  African  people  of 
all  grades  and  of  all  colours.  He  understood  them  well, 
and  knew  how  to  rule  them,  though  at  times,  perhaps,  his 
wise  and  practical  methods  were  not  strictly  in  accordance 
with  the  preaching  of  Exeter  Hall  nor  with  the  Queen's 
Regulations.  As  a  lieutenant,  in  1853,  he  had  taken  part 
in  the  unfortunate  expedition  under  Captain  Lock,  R.N., 
from  the  River  Irrewaddy  into  the  Burmese  jungles.  I 
have  referred  to  this  operation  at  the  beginning  of  these 
memoirs.^ 

The  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  having  rightly 
formed  a  high  opinion  of  Captain  Glover's  ability,  sent  him 
to  the  Gold  Coast  with  somewhat  vague  instructions  as 
to  raising  a  native  force  in  the  eastern  province  of  our 
protectorate.  He  on  his  part  had  given  Lord  Kimberley 
a  rough  outline  of  his  plan  for  bringing  theAshantee  King 
to  reason  by  operating  against  Koomassee  from  the  River 
Volta  as  a  base. 

In  the  instructions  he  received  from  the  Colonial  Office 

*  See  p.  42,  vol.  i, 

294 


CAPTAIN  GLOVER,    R.N. 

he  was  ordered  to  "  subject  himself  to  the  general  control 
of  the  officer  administering  the  Gold  Coast."  He  had 
selected  some  excellent  officers  to  accompany  him,  and  I 
believe,  had  succeeded  in  collecting  about  i,ooo  Houssas 
before  I  arrived.  It  was  an  unwise  and  expensive  arrange- 
ment, for  had  I  been  given  those  i,ooo  Houssas  I  should 
have  been  able  to  have  done  all  I  wanted  with  two  instead 
of  three  British  battalions,  thereby  saving  a  large  outlay 
and  the  lives  of  many  British  soldiers. 

No  men  could  have  worked  harder  than  Captain  Glover 
and  the  excellent  officers  he  had  with  him,  but  they  con- 
tributed little  towards  the  end  aimed  at.  Their  employ- 
ment is  a  good  illustration  of  how  much  can  be  thrown 
away  when  the  War  Office  and  the  Colonial  Office  each 
attempts  to  carry  on  a  campaign  at  the  same  time  for  the 
attainment  of  the  same  object.  If  as  a  taxpayer  I  may 
venture  to  express  an  opinion,  I  would  say  that  it  is  at 
least  an  unbusinesslike  proceeding.  The  War  Office  and 
the  Admiralty  are  respectively  charged  by  the  nation  with 
the  conduct  of  war,  one  upon  land  the  other  upon  sea. 
I  cannot  too  strongly  deprecate  the  egregious  folly  of  placing 
the  command  of  a  fleet  in  the  hands  of  a  soldier,  or  of  an 
army  in  the  hands  of  a  sailor  :  one  is  as  ridiculous  a  pro- 
ceeding as  the  other,  and  the  whole  teaching  of  history 
warns  us  against  any  such  stupid  folly. 

Early  in  December,  1873,  Captain  Glover  had  collected 
at  Blappah,  on  the  lower  Volta,  a  native  army  that  was  said 
to  be  18,000  strong.  To  be  of  any  important  use  it  was 
essential  he  should  cross  the  Prah  at  the  point  he  had 
selected  on  or  about  January  15,  1874,  the  date  I  named 
for  him  to  do  so,  and  when  I  also  meant  to  cross  at  Prahsu. 
He  did  cross  then,  but  with  only  some  800  Houssas,  and 

2g5 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

although  he  was  never  seriously  engaged  I  have  no  doubt 
that  his  advance  from  a  different  direction  did  affect  King 
Koffee's  nerves.  It  did  not,  however,  prevent  us  from 
having  to  fight  our  way  through  the  Ashantee  army  into 
Koomassee,  and  looking  back  at  Captain  Glover's  costly 
expedition,  I  should  say  that  it  was  embarked  upon  by 
Lord  Kimberley  with  too  little  consideration,  and  that 
practically  it  had  not  any  commensurate  effect  upon  the 
result  of  the  war.  It  did,  however,  deprive  me  of  the 
services  of  the  i,ooo  Houssas  Captain  Glover  was  able  to 
coUect  from  Cape  Coast  Castle,  from  Lagos  and  from  our 
other  coast  stations,  upon  whom  I  had  counted  much 
before  leaving  England. 

The  general  plan  of  campaign  I  had  determined  upon 
before  reaching  my  destination  divided  itself  naturally 
into  two  phases  :  (i)  what  I  could  effect  before  the  white 
troops  arrived  ;  (2)  what  I  should  do  with  my  little  army 
of  British  soldiers  and  natives  when  I  had  succeeded  in 
concentrating  it  at  Prahsu.  Number  one  divided  itself 
into  two  objectives  which  must  be  accomplished  before 
number  two  could  be  begun  ;  they  were  as  follows  : — 

(a)  To  clear  out  the  Ashantees  from  the  protectorate 
with  whatever  native  troops  I  could  raise  ; 

(b)  The  construction  of  a  road  from  Cape  Coast  to  Prahsu 
■ — a  distance  said  to  be  about  seventy-five  miles — and  the 
preparation  of  good  shelter  for  the  white  troops  at  the 
selected  halting-places. 

1  began  on  number  one  immediately  upon  landing. 

I  quickly  realized  from  what  I  had  seen  and  learnt  of 
the  country  between  the  coast  and  Prahsu  that  in  the 
short  time  at  my  disposal  for  operations  in  the  interior 
the  construction  of  a  railway  between  those  two  points 

296 


CONSTRUCTION    OF    ROAD 

was  out  of  the  question.  The  gradients  on  the  roads 
were  too  steep  for  any  general  use  of  even  traction  engines, 
and  the  frail  bridges  were  too  light  to  bear  them.  "  Both 
the  railroad  and  the  traction  engines  were  pressed  upon 
me  in  England  and  I  asked  for  them,  against  my  better 
judgment,  after  my  original  requisition  for  stores  had 
been  submitted."  ^ 

By  October  8  I  had  resolved  upon  having  a  brush  with 
the  enemy  as  soon  as  I  could  complete  the  necessary 
arrangements.  I  find  the  following  entry  in  my  diary  of 
that  date  :  "I  require  a  success  to  reinspire  confidence, 
which  I  find  has  fallen  here  to  the  lowest  ebb."  I  had 
already  made  many  of  the  arrangements  which  were 
necessary  for  an  expedition  into  the  bush,  but  kept  my 
plans  secret  to  the  last  moment. 

For  several  weeks  past  some  villages  in  the  Elmina 
district  had  been  giving  trouble.  They  had  sided  with 
the  invaders  and  had  supplied  their  army  with  provisions. 
Detachments  of  the  enemy's  soldiers  were  quartered  in 
each  village,  so  that  our  officers  found  it  dangerous  to 
approach  them,  I  selected  them  for  attack  chiefly  because 
they  were  so  near  at  hand  that  I  could  easily  make  such 
an  example  of  them  as  would  cause  the  Ashantees  generally 
to  feel  that  a  new  state  of  things  had  arisen.  I  had  spread 
false  news  and  had  put  them  off  their  guard,  so  that  no 
assistance  from  Mampon  could  arrive  before  I  had  done 
with  them. 

The  entry  in  my  diary  of  October  ii  is  :  "  Have  made  all 

arrangements  for  my  first  fight  to  come  off  at  daybreak, 

Tuesday  next,  the  14th  instant.      I  keep  the  thing  here  a 

profound  secret  and  shall  begin  to  spread  false  news  on 

^  My  diary  of  Octi  lOj  1873. 

297 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Monday  by  announcing  that  I  have  received  a  despatch 
from  Captain  Glover  saying  he  is  hard  pressed  at  Addah 
by  hostile  tribes  from  the  right  bank  of  the  river  Volta." 
Then  follows  a  somewhat  detailed  plan  of  the  intended 
operation.  It  winds  up  thus  :  "I  anticipate,  with  God's 
assistance,  a  complete  success,  and  if  so  it  will  do  much 
to  re-kindle  enthusiasm  and  pluck  amongst  these  wretched 
Fantees." 

Next  morning,  October  12,  I  announced  at  breakfast 
to  all  my  party  that  I  had  had  bad  news  from  Glover ; 
that  he  was  hemmed  in  at  Addah,  etc.,  etc.,  and  that  it 
was  possible  I  should  run  down  the  following  day  in  a 
man-of-war  to  help  him  ;  that  I  expected  another  letter 
from  him  early  the  following  day  which  would  enable  me 
to  settle  my  plans.  I  made  no  secret  of  this  pretended 
news,  and  the  whole  town  knew  it  very  soon.  The  only 
officers  in  the  secret  were  my  chief  of  the  staff  and  my 
commissary-general.  They  were  both  trustworthy  men, 
and  I  could  not,  even  if  I  would,  have  kept  them  in  ignorance 
and  at  the  same  time  have  made  all  the  detailed  arrange- 
ments that  were  necessary.  I  dwell  upon  this  little  matter 
as  it  may  be  a  lesson  to  others  in  the  use  that  can  be,  and 
should  be,  made  in  war  of  false  news  judiciously  circulated. 

I  despatched  a  letter  to  Colonel  E.  Wood,  commanding 
at  Elmina,  and  gave  him  full  details  of  my  plans,  when  I 
should  join  him,  etc.,  etc.,  impressing  absolute  secrecy  upon 
him.  In  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  orders  I  sent 
him,  he  said  he  would  not  allow  any  one  to  sleep  in  his 
room  lest  he  should  talk  about  my  plans  in  his  sleep  ! 

I  attached  the  utmost  importance  to  keeping  secret 
this  intended  operation,  because  I  specially  wanted  it 
to  be  a  complete    success,    and   the    force   available    was 

298 


SPREAD    FALSE  NEWS 

small.  If  the  Ashantees  heard  of  my  intentions  they 
might  easily  reinforce  the  villages  I  meant  to  take  and 
prevent  me  from  accomplishing  much.  I  was  anxious 
to  make  the  affair  an  absolute  surprise,  knowing  from 
experience  how  demoralizing  a  surprise  is  to  all  troops, 
especially  savages.  Hitherto  the  enemy  had  been 
accustomed  to  obtain  full  information  through  spies 
and  their  friends  amongst  our  own  allies  of  everything 
we  did  or  were  about  to  do.  At  the  same  time  they  took 
care  that  we  should  learn  very  little  of  their  movements 
or  intentions.  If,  therefore,  I  could  in  the  first  passage 
of  arms  with  them  succeed  in  surprising  them,  they  would 
realize  that  a  new  phase  of  operations  was  in  store  for 
them  under  the  new  soldier  governor. 

The  following  morning,  October  13,  I  openly  announced 
to  my  staff  at  breakfast  that  I  had  again  heard  from 
Captain  Glover,  who  was  so  hard  pressed  that  I  intended 
going  to  his  assistance.  In  the  evening  I  put  on  board 
a  gunboat  the  ninety  bayonets  of  which  the  detachment 
of  the  2nd  West  India  Regiment  consisted,  telling  all 
ranks  they  were  bound  for  the  Volta.  I  ordered  Colonel 
Wood  to  lock  up  for  the  night  all  the  carriers  who  reached 
him  that  day  as  usual  with  stores.  He  would  thus  have 
them  ready  for  use  in  the  bush,  the  following  morning. 

At  9  p.m.  that  same  evening  I  embarked  with  my  staff  on 
board  Captain  Freemantle's  ship,  having  put  a  detachment 
of  bluejackets  into  Cape  Coast  Castle  as  a  garrison  to 
remain  there  during  my  absence.  We  anchored  off  Elmina, 
and  the  disembarkation  began  at  3  a.m.  the  following 
morning.  There  was  some  little  moonlight  to  help  us, 
but  unfortunately  the  naval  people  were  wrong  in  their 
calculation  of  the  tide,  which  was  not  fuU  then,  as  we  were 

299 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

led  to  expect  it  would  be.  All  the  boats  carrying  the 
troops  consequently  grounded  on  the  bar  at  the  mouth 
of  the  little  river  which  faUs  into  the  sea  there.  Some 
were  detained  upon  the  bar  for  over  an  hour,  some  were 
nearly  swamped,  all  were  more  or  less  wet,  and  the 
ammunition  of  some  had  to  be  changed  upon  landing. 
AU  this  provokingly  retarded  my  movements,  as  I  had  hoped 
to  have  made  at  least  a  mile  of  my  intended  march  before 
the  first  streak  of  daylight  at  5  a.m.  I  gave  Colonel  E. 
Wood  command  of  the  day's  operations,  but  I  took  part 
in  them  myself  in  order  to  show  the  natives  that  I  was 
not  only  a  civil  governor  but  also  a  fighting  general. 
:  Essaman,  the  first  village  we  attacked,  was  about  five 
miles  north-west  from  Elmina.  The  enemy  were  completely 
surprised  and  we  destroyed  the  place.  In  this  affair 
Colonel  McNeill  was  badly  wounded — I  have  already 
described  how — and  had  eventually  to  be  sent  home.  I 
felt  his  loss  much,  for  he  was  a  first-rate  man  of  business 
and  a  more  cheery  and  untiring  comrade  I  never  had. 
Captain  Freemantle,  then  the  senior  naval  officer  on  the 
coast,  was  also  hit,  but  not  seriously. 

After  an  hour's  halt  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  captured 
village  to  enable  us  to  destroy  the  camps  around  it,  we 
marched  nearly  due  south  to  the  coast  and  attacked  some 
other  villages,  which  shared  the  same  fate.  In  this  operation 
the  bluejackets  and  marines  from  the  fleet  co-operated 
most  effectually.  By  the  time  the  troops  engaged  had 
returned  to  Elmina  they  had  marched  about  twenty  mUes. 
It  was  a  hard  day's  work  in  such  a  climate,  but  the  result 
was  satisfactory.  With  the  exception  of  poor  McNeill, 
whom  I  left  for  the  night  at  Elmina,  my  staff  and  I  were 
back  in  Cape  Coast  Castle  for   dinner   that   same  evening. 

300 


ASHANTEE  SLUGS 

Our  losses  had  been  trifling.  Only  one  man,  a  Houssa, 
killed,  and  three  officers  and  twenty-three  rank  and  file 
wounded. 

Our  little  fight  had  a  good  effect  upon  what  would  else- 
where be  called  "  public  opinion."  The  experience  gained 
proved  that  the  Ashantee  powder  was  such  poor,  weak 
stuff,  that  their  slugs  did  little  harm  beyond  a  distance 
of  forty  or  fifty  yards.  This  was  good  news  for  all  ranks. 
Throughout  the  campaign  a  large  proportion  of  us  were 
hit  by  these  slugs,  but  in  most  cases  they  merely  gave  a 
severely  stinging  and  painful  blow  without  entering  the 
flesh.  A  bad  headache  or  stomachache  for  some  hours 
was  often  the  only  inconvenience  they  occasioned. 

I  had  thus  taught  the  Ashantees  that  even  in  the  bush 
they  were  not  secure  from  our  attack,  and  had  given  the 
weak-hearted  Fantees  new  life  by  showing  them  that 
the  English  were  not  afraid  to  tackle  the  Ashantees  in  the 
bush,  and  that  even  there  we  were  the  better  men.  But 
no  less  important  was  the  warning  I  received  from  this 
affair.  I  was  shown  how  little  reliance  could  be  placed 
on  even  the  best  native  troops  when  in  the  bush,  owing  to 
the  impossibility  of  keeping  them  under  the  immediate 
control  of  European  officers.  I  learnt  also  that  in  such 
thick  bush  we  required  a  very  large  proportion  of  officers 
as  the  space  over  which  one  officer  can  exercise  any  useful 
influence  there  is  very  small.  Without  plenty  of  officers, 
the  men,  both  British  and  native,  soon  get  out  of  hand. 
I  found  that  undisciplined  native  troops  were  a  positive 
source  of  danger  in  the  bush,  from  the  reckless  manner  in 
which  they  fired  in  all  directions.  The  great  noise  natives 
make  in  action,  and  the  smoke  which  hangs  long  in  such 
forests,  render  it  difficult  to  form  any  good  opinion  of  the 

301 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

enemy's  strength.  I  wound  up  my  dispatch  describing 
the  day's  proceedings  by  urging  in  the  very  strongest 
terms  "  that  the  best  officers  and  the  most  highly  dis- 
cipUned  troops  are  alone  capable  of  bringing  this  war  to 
a  speedy  and  successful  issue." 

The  experience  I  gained  in  the  general  conduct  of  military 
operations  in  the  bush  from  this  little  affair  was  most 
useful.  It  enabled  me  to  advise  the  home  Government 
upon  important  points  regarding  the  equipment  of  the 
three  battalions  I  should  probably  require  from  home. 

By  the  end  of  October  I  had  realized  the  absolute  futility 
of  placing  any  reliance  upon  the  promises  made  to  me  of 
native  levies.  I  had  hoped  to  have  raised  a  large  fighting 
force  from  the  coast  tribes,  but  a  few  hundreds  only 
could  be  obtained.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  I  had 
satisfied  myself  that  with  the  precautions  I  had  in  view 
I  could  safely  employ  British  troops  for  a  rapid  advance 
upon  Koomassee  and  the  shortest  possible  stay  there  would 
enable  me  to  destroy  it. 

All  through  the  month  of  October  every  exertion  was 
made  to  construct  a  good  road  to  Mansue,  which  is  about 
half-way  between  the  sea  and  Prahsu,  and  in  which  I  had 
placed  a  garrison.  My  occupation  of  that  place  and  the 
success  of  the  little  affair  at  Essaman  on  the  14th  of  that 
month  had  caused  the  enemy  to  break  up  their  camp  at 
Mampon  and  retire  nearer  their  frontier.  I  endeavoured 
to  follow  them  up  with  native  levies,  but  none  had  courage 
to  tackle  the  Ashantee  troops,  even  when  retreating. 


302 


CHAPTER   XLVI 

Ashantee  Attack  upon  Abrakrampa 

LATE  in  October  native  rumour  said  that  Amanquatia, 
the  Ashantee  Commander-in-Chief,  intended  to  attack 
Abrakrampa — a  village  of  some  importance  about  eleven 
miles  from  the  coast.  Having  paid  a  visit  to  the  place, 
I  found  it  was  well  built  and  possessed  the  good  brick 
schoolhouse  of  a  Wesley  an  mission  that  had  flourished 
there  before  the  Ashantee  invasion.  Colonel  Festing, 
the  commandant  at  Dunquah,  had  been  ordered  to  move 
out  the  same  morning  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  re- 
treating enemy's  rearguard  "  a  good  kick  "  if  he  could 
come  up  with  it.  He  had  only  marched  a  few  miles  along 
the  "  haunted  road "  when  he  came  upon  an  Ashantee 
camp  which  he  surprised  and  destroyed.  He  was  in  action 
with  the  rest  of  their  force  for  several  hours,  plying  them 
with  shot,  shell  and  rockets  and  with  volleys  from  his  Snider 
rifles.  Five  officers  were  wounded,  one  of  whom,  Captain 
Godwin,  of  the  Royal  Dublins,  was  hit  badly  in  the  groin. 
A  very  good  officer,  always  well  to  the  fore,  he  was  a  severe 
loss  at  the  moment.  I  saw  him  the  next  day,  when  he 
declared  that  his  wound  was  nothmg,  and  that  he  was 
certain  to  be  well  in  a  few  days.  He  would  walk  about 
to  make  others  believe  he  was  all  right.      Yet  my  doctor 

303 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

told  me  I  need  not  count  upon  his  assistance  again  in  the 
campaign.      "  It  is  of  such  stuff  that  heroes  are  made."  ^ 

From  the  beginning  of  November  Colonel  Festing  had 
many  skirmishes  with  the  enemy,  but  he  and  the  young 
officers  with  him  found  it  no  easy  work  to  hold  our  forward 
positions  with  such  cowardly  followers  as  the  Fantees. 
In  one  of  his  many  skirmishes,  which  lasted  several  hours, 
his  native  allies  ran  away.  Nearly  aU  the  British  officers 
engaged  were  wounded  when  trying  to  lead  those  cowardly 
wretches  forward.  Lieutenant  Wilmot,  of  the  Royal 
Artillery,  was  shot  through  the  heart,  and  Colonel  Festing 
when  trying  to  carry  him  out  of  fire  was  wounded  in  the 
hip.  Wilmot  had  been  wounded  early  in  the  day,  but 
like  the  daring  fellow  he  was  would  not  hear  of  leaving 
the  front.  What  gallant  soldiers  die  for  England  almost 
daily  somewhere  or  other  along  her  wide  extending 
frontiers ! 

At  poor  Wilmot's  funeral  I  overheard  one  of  my  young 
officers  say  to  another,  "  There  goes  the  first  of  us." 

In  the  early  watches  of  November  6,  I  was  roused  by  the 
arrival  of  a  messenger  from  Colonel  Baker  Russell,  then 
commanding  at  Abrakrampa.  He  reported  being  heavily 
attacked  by  some  thousands  of  the  enemy,  and  wrote  in 
the  middle  of  the  engagement.  A  letter  was  at  once  sent  off 
to  the  senior  naval  officer  asking  him  to  lend  every  available 
fighting  man  he  could.  The  result  was  that  at  about 
7  a.m.  300  sailors  and  marines  were  on  the  road  for  that 
village.      The  heat  was  so  great  that  one-third  of  the  party 

^  In  my  diary  of  October  31,1 873, 1  wrote  :  "  All  these  officers  I  have 
with  me,  being  selected  men,  seem  to  think  it  necessary  never  to 
give  in.  There  is  a  medium  in  all  things,  and  obstinacy  in  not 
confessing  to  be  ill  in  such  a  climate  may  lead  to  serious  conse- 
quences." 

304 


RELIEF  OF  ABRAKRAMPA 

fell  out  during  the  first  ten  miles.  Whilst  on  the  march  I  had 
a  modest  report  from  RusseU  telling  how  successfully  he 
had  beaten  back  the  enemy  the  day  before.  A  little 
later,  however,  I  received  another,  saying  that  the  enemy 
having  renewed  the  attack  and  nearly  surrounded  him, 
he  needed  help.  My  men  by  this  time  were  more  or  less 
"  done  "  by  their  hot  march,  but  as  RusseU  seemed  to  be 
hard  pressed  it  was  impossible  to  sit  stiU  whilst  my  trusted 
and  best  of  comrades  needed  assistance.  We  therefore 
started  again  at  4  p.m.  with  the  least  done-up  half  of 
the  300  men  I  had  brought  with  me,  and  with  the  fifty 
marines  who  constituted  the  garrison  of  Assayboo  where 
we  then  were.  I  took  with  us  an  ample  supply  of  rockets, 
ammunition  and  food.  Before  leaving  Cape  Coast,  I 
had  ordered  the  movement  of  some  small  neighbouring 
detachments  towards  the  Abrakrampa  road,  which  were  of 
great  use. 

We  did  not  march  by  the  direct  route  to  the  besieged 
place  as  it  was  desirable,  if  possible,  to  avoid  having  to 
fight  our  way  into  the  place  with  aU  the  stores  I  had  with 
me.  Everything  turned  out  as  I  had  hoped,  and  we  reached 
the  besieged  garrison  before  sunset.  All  ranks  had  been 
cheered  on  to  vigorous  exertions  during  the  evening  march 
by  the  sound  of  heavy  firing  in  the  Abrakrampa  direction. 

Colonel  Baker  RusseU  met  me  just  outside  the  viUage. 
He  was  as  joUy  and  as  happy  as  usual,  but  done  up  some- 
what from  want  of  sleep.  He  had  been  fighting  almost 
without  intermission  for  thirty-six  hours.  I  don't  know 
which  was  harder,  his  constitution  or  his  splendid  "  never- 
say-die  "  determination.  My  staff  took  over  aU  the  guards 
and  outposts  that  night,  whilst  the  old  garrison  had  a 
good  night's  rest,  which  they  wanted  badly.  The  enemy, 
VOL.  II.  305  X 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

who  had  scarcely  opposed  our  approach  to  the  place, 
ceased  firing  about  sundown.  Colonel  Wood  had  been 
ordered  to  make  a  reconnaissance  in  force  upon  the  enemy's 
rear  during  my  march,  but  his  cowardly  Cape  Coast  people 
could  not  be  induced  to  do  so,  and  his  guides  purposely 
led  him  astray. 

At  daybreak  next  morning,  November  7,  the  enemy 
opened  a  mere  dropping  fire  upon  our  outposts,  and  it  soon 
became  evident  they  were  already  in  fuU  retreat.  They 
had  lost  heavily  and  expended  a  vast  amount  of  ammu- 
nition without  doing  us  much  damage.  Several  officers 
had  been  hard  hit,  but  the  slugs  had  not  done  much  harm, 
and  the  lost  in  killed  and  wounded  amongst  our  native 
levies  had  been  small.  The  Cape  Coast  chiefs  with  a 
rabble  following  arrived  early  that  day,  and  I  told  them 
they  must  that  afternoon  attack  the  retreating  enemy. 
They  said  they  would  do  so,  but  I  had  no  confidence  in 
their  assurance,  as  I  knew  them  to  be  a  cowardly  lot. 

They  paraded  at  2  p.m.,  and  were  with  difficulty  formed 
into  a  rough  line  in  front  of  the  position  held  by  the 
Ashantees  the  evening  before.  My  officers  belaboured 
them  with  sticks  and  umbrellas,  and  Russell's  fierce  Kossoos 
drove  them  on  with  their  cutlasses  from  behind.  Had 
I  not  witnessed  this  scene  I  could  not  have  believed  that 
the  world  contained  such  cowards.  The  chiefs,  if  anything, 
were  worse  than  their  followers.  But  the  bush  in  their 
front  proved  to  be  unoccupied,  for  the  Ashantee  army 
had  already  fallen  back, 

I  at  once  sent  forward  all  the  King  of  Abrah's  men  and 
our  own  Houssas  to  where  the  main  body  of  the  enemy 
were  encamped.  They  surprised  the  rear  guard,  and 
nearly  captured  Amanquatia,   the  Ashantee  commander- 

3106 


DOWN  WITH  FEVER 

in-chief,  who  was  said  to  have  remained  behind  to  have 
a  good  drink  before  he  retreated.  His  camp  equipment 
was  taken,  including  his  bed,  sedan  chair,  drums,  sacred 
cock  and  other  fetish  appHances.  A  pursuit  was  attempted, 
but  in  vain  ;  my  native  forces  of  all  sorts  would  do  nothing 
but  plunder  the  quantities  of  loot  left  in  the  enemy's  camp 
and  abandoned  along  the  road  they  were  retreating  by. 
A  considerable  number  of  slaves  were  taken,  who  were 
mostly  fastened  by  the  wrists  with  iron  staples  driven 
into  logs  of  wood.  One,  a  good-looking  Fantee  woman 
with  a  baby,  had  a  miraculous  escape.  When  we  attacked 
the  camp  her  master  bolted,  ordering  her  to  follow.  He 
thought  she  did  not  do  so  with  sufficient  alacrity,  so  pro- 
ceeded to  cut  her  throat,  and  whilst  so  engaged  was  killed 
by  one  of  our  bullets.  A  fearful  looking  and  fresh  gash 
in  her  throat  corroborated  her  story. 

I  reached  Cape  Coast  that  same  evening  in  a  high  state 
of  fever.  I  have  had  hundreds  of  tussles  with  that  enemy 
in  my  career,  but  I  think  this  was  the  worst  I  ever  had. 
Thanks  be  to  God,  however,  the  care  and  ability  of  my 
old  brother  officer,  Surgeon-General  Sir  A.  Home,  V.C, 
and  the  devoted  and  careful  nursing  of  lieutenant,  now 
General  Sir  F.  Maurice,  pulled  me  safely  through.  May 
my  worst  enemy  never  know  so  bad  a  time,  mentally  and 
bodily,  as  I  had  then.  For  six  days  there  are  no  entries 
in  my  diary.  During  that  well-nigh  sleepless  period  I 
often  felt  as  if  I  must  go  mad,  for  my  thoughts  apparently 
flew  with  electric  rapidity  and  without  reason  from  one 
subject  to  millions  of  others.  I  dictated  to  myself  over 
and  over  again  a  letter  to  Mr.  Cardwell  in  which  I  resigned 
my  appointment,  and  expressed  my  deep  sorrow  at  being 
obliged  to  do  so.     In  the  worst  night  of  my  waking  fever, 

307 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

I  remember  well  how  my  puzzled  brain  tried  repeatedly 
to  work  out  a  quadratic  equation  which  no  amount  of 
transposition  would  enable  me  to  solve.  Existence  in 
the  narrow  borderland  which  intervenes  between  sanity 
and  insanity  in  such  cases  is  always  a  fearful  experience. 
I  ought  to  know  every  natural  feature  in  that  parched  and 
waterless  region,  so  often  in  life  has  my  fever-stricken  and 
waking  mind  wandered  over  it,  and  so  often  have  I  seen 
other  men  fall  struggling  upon  its  hot  burning  sands  never 
to  rise  again.  But  there  is  nothing  loathsome  or  disgusting 
in  the  horrors  which  overtake  the  merely  fever-worried 
brain.  You  may  in  excited  moments  suspect  those 
about  you  of  trying  to  kill  you,  of  some  great  conspiracy 
against  your  body,  but  the  snakes  and  horrors  which  haunt 
the  poor,  abject  creature  in  delirium  tremens,  and  whose 
loathsome  appearance  terrifies  him,  do  not  vex  the  merely 
fever-racked  man.  The  former  is  for  the  time  an  abject 
coward,  ashamed  of  himself  and  almost  paralyzed  b}''  the 
visions  which  scare  him.  But  no  terror,  no  shrinking 
horror  enters  into  the  miseries  suffered  in  malarial^ fever. 
The  worst  moments  come  from  a  feeling  of  inability  and 
want  of  strength,  both  mental  and  physical,  to  accomplish 
some  quaint  objective  that  for  the  moment  fills  the  over- 
wrought brain. 

The  noise  of  the  surf  as  it  beats  at  night  upon  the  shore, 
conveys  to  the  keenly  sensitive  ears  of  the  fever-stricken 
an  idea  of  fresh  coolness,  until  its  monotony  becomes 
wearisome  and  then  actually  terrifying.  It  tells  you  of 
that  solemn  and  mysterious  ocean  that  surges  upon  the 
coast  in  often  the  calmest  weather.  You  fancy  you  can  hear 
that  curious  hissing  noise  each  wave  makes  as  it  spends  its 
force  higher  and  further  up  that  hard  shore  of  sand.     My 

308 


THE  GOLD  COAST  FEVER 

fevered,  wandering  mind  often  strayed  away  into  a  sort  of 
mad  practicality,  as  I  puzzled  over  the  millions  of  tons  of 
energy  thus  uselessly  expended  every  day  and  night.  Why 
was  not  this  great  force  turned  to  some  useful  purpose  in 
the  economy  of  the  world  ?  Then  off  darted  my  illogical 
mental  bewilderment  into  insoluble  speculations  as  to  the 
fortunes  that  might  be  made  by  any  one  who  had  the  sense 
to  turn  this  power  to  some  mercantile  purpose.  Why,  all 
the  spinning  jenneys  of  Lancashire  might  be  kept  at  work 
by  the  unused  force  of  the  sea  upon  the  Gold  Coast  alone  ! 

To  the  man  stricken  with  deUrious  fever  and  thereby 
distressed  through  fancied  thoughts  of  duties  neglected  and 
of  work  he  ought  to,  but  cannot,  undertake,  the  disturbed 
sleep  snatched  at  moments  brings  little  rest — no  satisfaction. 
No  refreshing  comfort  comes  there  with  sleep  as  it  does  in 
other  countries.  Too  often  it  leaves  you  as  it  found  you, 
tossing  from  side  to  side  on  your  hated  bed,  restless  in  mind 
and  body,  and  with  a  skin  so  dry,  so  hot,  that  it  feels  like 
scorched  parchment.  Your  mind  is  torn  with  cares  that 
madden  it,  and  your  very  muscles  lose  their  power  from  the 
fever  that  rages  within  you.  Will  the  night  never  end  ? 
What  o'clock  is  it  ?  When  will  that  sun,  hated  at  midday, 
rise  to  tell  you  that  the  night  is  over,  and  another  dull  day 
of  abject  misery  is  before  you  ?  You  will  be  at  least  so 
many  hours  nearer  the  crisis  when  some  unknown  power  and 
authority  will  decide  your  fate,  coldly  regardless  of  your 
wishes  or  your  feelings.  What  will  the  decision  be  ?  Must 
you  go  home  and  so  bid  good-bye  to  the  immediate  ambitions 
that  filled  your  mind  when  it  was  strong  and  healthy  three 
days  ago  ?  Are  you  to  linger  on  there  far  from  all  you  love 
and  tortured  by  your  inability  to  share  with  comrades  the 
work  you  had  left  England  to  carry  out,  until  grim  death 

309 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

relieves  you  from  all  care,  all  sorrow  and  anxiety  ?  How 
the  tortured  mind  strives  to  answer  these  self-given  questions 
until  feverish  imagination,  quickened  by  reviving  hope, 
limns  out  fanciful  pictures  of  returning  health,  of  partially 
restored  strength.  But  so  weak  are  you  that  the  very 
exertion  of  thinking,  and  the  mechanical  fatigue  it  entails, 
robs  you  so  of  mental  power  that  your  wearied  head  drops 
upon  the  pillow,  and  sleep — soft,  silent,  gentle  sleep,  comes 
mercifully  to  your  rescue. 

But  what  pen  could  describe  the  working  of  a  man's  brain 
when  it  is  on  fire  with  a  Gold  Coast  fever  ?  Perhaps  Edgar 
Poe  might,  but  no  one  else  of  whom  I  have  ever  heard  could 
do  so  effectively.  Knowing  what  those  tortures  are  from 
horrible  experience  I  could  not  have  it  on  my  conscience 
to  inflict  them  upon  my  worst  enemy  had  I  the  dire  power 
of  doing  so.  However,  on  November  20,  I  was  again  well 
and  hearty,  and  fully  able  to  work  once  more. 

After  the  Ashantee  army's  severe  repulse  at  Abra- 
krampa  I  was  busy  throughout  the  month  of  November  in 
slowly  pushing  it  back  beyond  the  River  Prah.  At  first  I 
was  much  tempted  to  collect  all  the  white  soldiers  and 
sailors  and  all  my  available  Houssas  in  order  to  make  a  dash 
upon  the  rear  of  the  retreating  enemy.  With  them  I  felt 
I  might  inflict  a  severe  blow,  but  would  that  result  be 
worth  the  cost  ?  The  sun  and  fever  would  for  certain 
largely  reduce  the  number  of  fighting  white  men  upon  whom 
I  should  have  to  depend  chiefly  for  success  in  my  eventual 
advance  upon  Koomassee.  It  would  also  seriously  retard 
the  construction  of  our  Prahsu  road  and  the  erection  of 
shelters  at  the  halting-places  along  it.  Worst  of  all,  any 
such  operation  would  necessarily  eat  largely  into  the 
magazines  of  food  I  had  established,  and  without  which  I 

310 


THE   ROYAL  ENGINEERS 

could  not  hope  to  move  beyond  the  Prah.  Having 
dehberately  weighed  the  matter  in  my  mind,  I  resolved  to 
adhere  to  my  original  plan  of  operations. 

All  through  the  months  of  November  and  December 
work  upon  the  Koomassee  road  was  pushed  forward 
unceasingly,  stations  being  established  and  preparations 
made  for  housing  the  troops  during  their  advance  along  it. 
At  each  station  where  I  intended  the  white  regiments  to 
halt  upon  their  march  to  the  Prah  good  huts  were  erected, 
fitted  with  bamboo  bedsteads  to  keep  the  men  off  the 
ground  at  night.  The  water  supply,  our  most  important 
point,  was  well  attended  to.  Large  filters  were  pro- 
vided, and  every  arrangement  that  the  scientific  know- 
ledge of  our  invaluable  principal  medical  officer,  Dr. 
Home,  suggested,  was  attended  to  as  far  as  the  means  at 
our  disposal  would  admit. 

I  made  frequent  excursions  to  inspect  the  work  and 
keep  all  ranks  up  to  the  mark.  But  the  heart  of  every 
man  was  in  what  he  had  to  do,  and  every  private  of  the 
Royal  Engineers  seemed  as  earnest  and  as  anxious  to  do 
all  in  his  power  to  make  the  expedition  a  complete  success 
as  the  very  best  of  our  officers.  We  have  every  reason  as 
a  nation  to  be  proud  of  the  corps  of  Royal  Engineers. 
Having  served  as  one  of  them  throughout  the  most  trying 
period  of  our  great  siege  in  the  Crimea,  and  having  watched 
their  work  in  many  campaigns,  I  know  the  sapper  well. 
His  regimental  spirit,  devotion  to  duty,  capability  and 
capacity  for  work,  stamp  him  as  the  "  handy  man  "  of 
our  Army.  I  only  wish  we  had  far  more  of  them,  and 
that  several  officers  in  every  regiment  of  cavalry  and 
battalion  of  foot,  and  at  least  a  few  men  of  every  company 
and  of  every  squadron  in  all  our  regiments  of  Regulars, 

311 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Militia,  Yeomanry  and  Volunteers  should  go  through  a 
course  of  the  field  training  taught  the  engineers  at  Chatham. 
It  is  merely  a  question  of  money  ;  but  during  peace  the 
Army  is  always  scamped  in  means  through  the  military 
ignorance  of  our  political  rulers.  And  yet,  when  any 
fault  is  found  with  our  officers  for  not  knowing  what  they 
could  learn,  and  are  anxious  to  learn,  at  these  special  schools, 
these  very  politicians  are  the  first  to  throw  up  their  eyes 
in  feigned  pity  and  sorrow  when  asked,  "  Why  are  not 
our  officers  better  taught  ?  " 

In  no  campaign  where  I  have  served  was  it  so  difficult 
to  obtain  trustworthy  information  of  the  enemy's  where- 
abouts, doings  and  intentions  as  it  was  upon  the  Gold 
Coast.  "  No  offers,  either  of  gold  to  the  poor,  place  to 
the  ambitious,  or  freedom  to  the  prisoners,  can  induce  any 
one  to  approach  the  Ashantee  camp,  such  a  step  being 
regarded  as  certain  death."  ^ 

The  Fantees  were  such  abominable  liars  and  such  lazy 
cowards — quahties  commonly  allied — that  when  employed 
as  spies  they  could  not  be  depended  on.  Money  will 
usually  open  most  doors  and  obtain  the  fuUest  information 
for  a  commander  in  the  field,  but  although  I  was  prepared 
to  pay  anything  for  Koomassee  news  I  never  obtained 
much  that  was  of  any  great  use  to  us.  My  spies  were 
supposed  to  be  in  all  directions,  but  I  never  could  be  certain 
that  any  of  them  ever  went  a  mile  beyond  our  outposts. 
It  was  only  by  comparing  the  news  daily  received  from 
all  sources  that  it  was  possible  to  arrive  at  any  useful 
conclusion.  Occasionally  a  Fantee  spy  would  bring  in 
an  Ashantee  prisoner,  whose  infoniiation  was  often  useful. 
But  as  a  rule   his  captor  preferred  to  kiU  him  in  order 

^  My  diary. 
312 


INFORMATION  DIFFICULT  TO  OBTAIN 

to  hand  down  his  preserved  head  as  an  heirloom  for  future 
generations  of  the  captor's  family  as  a  ghastly  evidence 
of  their  ancestor's  individual  prowess.  Such  a  family 
possession  is  more  highly  prized  even  than  refined  gold 
amongst  the  cowardly  coast  tribes. 

The  amount  of  our  information  regarding  the  Ashantee 
army,  or  upon  the  topography  and  climate  of  the  country 
lying  between  the  River  Prah  and  Koomassee,  was  pro- 
vokingly  meagre.  Indeed,  it  was  no  easy  matter  to 
collect  useful  data  regarding  even  the  tribes  near  our 
own  borders. 

I  learnt,  however,  that  the  period  was  very  short  during 
which  British  troops  could  operate  inland  without  exposing 
them  ruthlessly  to  very  heavy  losses  from  fever.  If 
I  could  not  finish  the  war  before  March  i,  I  determined 
to  embark,  upon  that  date  at  latest,  aU  the  British  soldiers 
ashore,  even  though  I  had  failed  to  accomplish  the  object 
for  which  I  had  landed  there. 

We  had  already  gained  some  useful  experience  as  to  the 
effect  of  this  terrible  climate  upon  the  health  of  British 
troops  from  the  small  party  of  Royal  Marines,  all  full  grown 
and  seasoned  soldiers,  who  had  been  ashore  with  Colonel 
Festing  before  my  arrival.      It  was  not  reassuring. 

By  the  middle  of  December,  1873,  all  the  three  British 
battalions  had  reached  the  Gold  Coast.  All  were  historic 
corps  of  great  reputation,  but  the  best  of  them  was  the 
"  Black  Watch,"  a  fact  I  attributed  to  its  having  by  far 
the  best  colonel,  now  General  Sir  John  Macleod,  G.C.B. 
A  true  soldier,  he  was  a  fine  type  of  the  old-fashioned 
regimental  commanding  officer  in  whom  aU  ranks  had  the 
fullest  confidence,  and  in  his  case  it  was  thoroughly 
deserved. 

313 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Captain  Andy  Wauchope,  who  had  been  adjutant  of 
that  battahon  of  the  Black  Watch,  was  one  of  my  selected 
"  special  service  "  officers.  As  soon  as  it  landed  he  in- 
sisted upon  rejoining,  for,  as  he  said  to  me,  he  could 
not  allow  it  to  go  into  action  without  him.  Nature's 
nobleman  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  expression,  he 
was  one  of  the  staunchest  friends  I  ever  had,  one  of 
the  keenest  soldiers  and  truest  comrades  I  ever 
served  with.  He  was  a  host  in  himself.  A  thorough 
man  of  business,  and  far  above  the  petty  jealousies  and 
vulgar  rivalries  of  life,  he  loved  his  Highlanders  and  they 
loved  him.  When  just  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  a 
Boer  bullet  pierced  his  gallant  heart,  Scotland  lost  one 
of  her  most  devoted  sons,  and  our  Sovereign  one  of  Her 
best  and  most  modest  soldiers. 

The  preparations  along  the  Prahsu  road  for  feeding  and 
sheltering  the  strong,  and  for  doctoring  the  sick  and 
wounded,  were  now  so  good  that  I  felt  I  might,  without 
undue  risk,  land  my  three  battalions  and  also  the  Naval 
Brigade  which  the  Commodore  had  promised  me.  My 
plan  was  to  concentrate  them  and  all  my  fighting  native 
forces  at  Prahsu,  and  push  thence  with  aU  possible  haste 
for  Koomassee.  I  hoped  to  defeat  the  Ashantee  army 
on  the  way,  and  having  taken  the  capital  and  its  far-famed 
palace,  to  make  peace  there.  Should  the  king  refuse  my 
terms,  I  intended  to  burn  both  city  and  palace,  and  then 
to  get  the  white  troops  back  on  board  ship  with  the  least 
possible  delay.  The  deadliness  of  the  climate  forbade 
me  to  calculate  upon  any  greater  military  results.  But 
I  felt  that  having  inflicted  such  a  heavy  punishment  upon 
King  Koffee  and  shown  him,  his  people,  and  all  neighbouring 
nations,   that   no  extent   of  deadly  jungle  could   protect 

314 


SELECTED    MEN  DOUBLY   VALUABLE 

them  from  a  British  army,  I  should  be  able  to  exact  the 
terms  I  wanted. 

I  had  already  reaped  such  great  advantages  from  having 
about  me  none  but  carefully  chosen  "  special  service 
officers,"  that  when  I  asked  for  a  third  battalion,  I  urged 
it  should  be  made  up  of  eight  companies,  to  be  selected  one 
from  each  of  eight  good  battalions.  But  the  military 
authorities  at  home  would  not  Usten  to  any  such  proposal. 
They  did  not  know  enough  of  war's  many  sides  to  under- 
stand my  difficulties  in  such  a  climate,  and  refused  to 
recognize  the  difference  in  fighting  value  between  a  battalion 
so  composed  and  the  ordinary  battalion  that  happens 
to  be  first  on  the  roster  for  foreign  service.  But  if  what 
I  write  is  ever  read  by  any  general  who  has  to  organize 
a  small  force  for  some  special  service  where  the  number 
of  men  that  can  be  fed  during  its  progress  is  very  small, 
and  the  climate  extremely  bad,  I  entreat  him  to  select  his 
rank  and  file  as  I  had  selected  my  officers,  and  as  I  wanted 
to  select  all  ranks  of  this  third  battahon.  Men  so  selected 
are  to  other  soldiers  what  pemmican  is  as  food  when  com- 
pared with  baker's  bread  to  the  man  who  has  to  carry 
a  month's  provisions  on  his  back.  The  officers  and 
privates  chosen  as  I  proposed  to  select  them  are  on  their 
mettle,  and  make  Hght  of  wounds  and  ailments  which 
would  send  the  ordinary  roster  man  into  hospital.  Far 
from  hurting  regimental  feeling,  my  experience  teaches 
me  that  this  plan  of  taking  companies  one  from  each  of 
several  battalions  serves  to  intensify  it.  As  each  company 
represents  a  battalion,  the  corps  sentiment  of  every  company 
becomes  stronger.  In  fact,  there  is  so  keen  a  rivalry 
between  the  companies  that  their  fighting  value  when  united 
into  one  battalion  is  greatly  increased. 

315 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

But  this  was  not  to  be.  Old-fashioned,  illogical  pre- 
judices won  the  day,  and  I  had  to  do  my  best  with  the 
usual  and  conventionally  constituted  battalions. 


316 


T 


CHAPTER  XLVII 

Sir  George  Colley 

HE  extra  third  battalion  largely  aided  me  in  accomplish- 
ing the  objects  I  had  in  view,  and  enabled  me  to  leave 
behind,  to  guard  our  communications  with  Prahsu,  the 
2nd  West  India  Regiment,  of  whose  colonel  and  officers  at 
that  time  I  had  no  high  opinion.  The  transport  question 
was  my  chief  difficulty,  but  since  the  arrival  of  Major  Colley, 
to  whom  I  had  given  over  its  command  and  organization,  I 
felt  easier  on  that  head.  He  was — all  round — one  of  the  very 
ablest  men  I  ever  knew.  Perfect  as  a  man  of  business,  I 
never  served  with  any  one  who  could  so  absolutely  evolve 
order  from  confusion  or  straighten  out  the  most  tangled  web 
of  difficulties  so  effectually  as  he  could.  Always  cool,  even 
in  the  greatest  danger,  nothing  could  apparently  ruffle  his 
calm  decision  of  character.  He  was  a  deep,  sober  and  active 
thinker  who  calculated  out  in  his  logical  brain  all  the  chances 
and  possibilities  of  any  undertaking  he  had  conceived  himself, 
or  that  had  been  proposed  by  another,  before  he  adopted  it. 
In  the  field,  as  I  knew  him,  he  was  an  extremely  clever,  hard- 
working man  of  great  bodily  activity,  who  never  spared  him- 
self. When  this  little  war  came  to  an  end,  I  should  have 
picked  him  out  as  the  ablest  officer  then  in  our  army,  and  in 
all  respects  as  the  man  most  fitted  to  be  a  general.     I  have 

317 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

good  reason  to  believe  that  all  who  knew  him  weU,  would 
have  done  likewise. 

How  can  I  best  describe  him,  my  trusted  friend  and  com- 
rade ?  Like  the  most  famous  of  history-makers,  he  too 
shared  the  common  lot  of  fallibility.  The  faults  of  many 
spring  from  jealousy,  but  his  had  no  such  vulgar  origin  ;  in 
others  they  may  be  traced  to  lack  of  reasoning  power  or  of 
professional  knowledge,  but  he  was  a  deep  reasoner,  and  few 
knew  as  much  of  the  science  and  art  of  war  as  he  did.  The 
one  serious  error  I  ever  discovered  in  him  through  all  our 
intimate  dealings  was  his  tendency  to  attempt  too  much 
with  too  little.  But  its  origin  did  him  credit,  for  I  am  sure 
it  sprang  from  an  over  generous  beUef  in  those  he  collected 
round  him.  He  certainly  always  treated  them  as  if  they 
were  as  keen,  as  brave,  as  unselfish,  as  determined  and  as 
absolutely  patriotic  as  he  was  himself.  To  this  generous 
fault  he  owed  his  death.  But  though  luck  turned  against 
him  and  he  consequently  failed  at  Majuba,  I  do  not  beheve 
our  army  at  this  moment  possesses  an  abler  soldier  than  he 
was. 

About  the  middle  of  December,  Colonel,  now  General,  Sir 
George  Greaves  joined  as  my  chief  of  the  staff,  for  which  posi- 
tion his  training,  varied  experience  and  great  knowledge  of 
our  Army  peculiarly  fitted  him. 

Early  in  December  my  reconnoitring  parties  reported 
the  Ashantee  army  to  have  retired  into  its  own  country 
and  to  have  lost  many  men  in  crossing  the  Prah.  The 
stench  from  their  dead  at  Prahsu  and  for  some  miles  south 
of  it  was  very  bad  when  my  patrols  first  reached  it. 

Everything  being  now  in  train  for  the  advance  upon  Koo- 
massee,  I  left  Cape  Coast  Castle  on  December  27, 1873.  The 
Naval  Brigade  had  landed,  that  same  morning,  a  splendid 

318 


OUR  FINE  NAVAL  BRIGADE 

body  of  men,  the  pick  of  the  fleet,  and  no  fighting  man  could 
wish  to  serve  with  finer  representatives  of  the  British  nation. 

Sailors  are  proverbially  fond  of  pets  and  the  Naval  Brigade 
had  adopted  one,  a  negro  boy,  very  black  and  very  small. 
They  had  dressed  him  in  the  full  uniform  of  a  bluejacket, 
which  made  him  very  proud  of  himself  and  of  the  wooden 
sword  they  had  made  for  him.  When  you  asked  him  his 
name,  they  had  taught  him  to  stand  up  to  attention,  to 
salute  and  to  answer  quite  solemnly,  "Mixed  Pickles,  Esquire, 
Sir."  They  took  the  utmost  delight  in  teaching  him  English, 
and  the  appearance  and  frolicsome  pomposity  of  this  child 
was  a  source  of  perpetual  amusement  to  aU  ranks. 

The  distance  to  Prahsu  was  covered  in  eight  marches. 
The  road  was  fairly  good  on  the  whole,  but  to  save  time  in  its 
construction,  it  had  been  made  to  wind  about  to  avoid  such 
obstacles  as  even  the  extremely  big  cotton  trees,  each  of 
which  would  have  taken  some  days  to  dispose  of. 

Prahsu  is  a  very  pretty  spot — in  England,  it  would  be 
described  as  "  lovely."  The  road  we  had  travelled  over 
resembled  generally  a  tunnel  cut  through  a  very  dense,  high, 
and  thickly  matted  forest  where  one  could  seldom  see  a  hun- 
dred yards  in  any  direction.  It  was  consequently  pleasant 
and  refreshing  to  find  one  self  at  last  on  the  bank  of  a  fine, 
running  river — some  seventy  yards  in  width — vvith  a  broad 
clearance  on  either  side  made  for  camping  purposes.  The 
southern  bank  where  the  main  camp  was,  is  about  thirty  feet 
above  the  river  level.  The  engineers  had  effected  wonders. 
The  indefatigable  energy  of  Captain  Home  had  infused  itself 
into  all  ranks  under  him,  and  all  worked  with  a  will  at  high 
pressure.  The  construction  of  a  bridge  was  being  pushed 
forward  with  all  possible  speed,  as  I  was  anxious  to  pass  my 
invading  army  dry-foot  over  it. 

319 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

A  few  hours  after  my  arrival,  I  heard  from  our  advanced 
scouts  that  messengers  had  just  come  with  a  letter  from  the 
Ashantee  King.  They  had  halted  about  i^  miles  north  of 
the  river  to  await  orders.  Brought  into  our  camp  they  were 
lodged  in  a  good  hut  under  a  guard.  The  Naval  Brigade, 
hale,  hearty  and  in  the  best  of  spirits  reached  Prahsu  the 
following  morning,  no  man  having  fallen  out  since  leaving 
the  coast.  They  were  marched  past  the  huts  in  which  the 
members  of  the  Ashantee  Embassy  were  kept  under  a  guard, 
and  deployed  into  line  in  front  of  it,  in  the  hope  that  the 
presence  of  white  troops  might  impress  them. 

As  my  bridge  was  to  be  passable  on  January  5, 1  resolved 
to  detain  these  messengers  until  they  could  return  by  it, 
and  sent  forward  Russell's  Regiment  to  a  village  some  miles 
distant,  through  which  they  would  have  to  pass  on  their 
return  journey.  I  hoped  the  report  of  these  facts  might 
make  King  Koffee  realize  that  war  was  intended  unless 
my  terms  were  accepted. 

Subsequently,  I  had  them  shown  the  Gatling  gun  in  action. 
The  sharp  roar  of  its  fire,  the  precision  of  its  aim  and  the  way 
in  which  its  bullets  threw  up  the  water  all  round  the  target  in 
the  river,  impressed  them  ;  at  least  I  thought  so.  That 
same  night  I  was  roused  by  a  shot  fired  close  to  me.  The 
guard  over  the  "  Embassy  "  were  talking  loudly,  and  upon 
inquiry  I  learnt  that  one  of  the  party  had  shot  himself.  His 
brother,  who  was  the  chief  amongst  them,  said  he  had  been 
brooding  over  his  position  and  believed  we  meant  to  kill  him. 
Permission  was  given  his  friends  to  bury  him  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Prah,  in  Ashantee  territory.  I  was  able  to  send 
the  funeral  over  by  the  bridge  which  was  just  made  passable. 
Each  of  the  Ashantees  who  attended  the  ceremony  threw 
sand  on  the  body  before  they  covered  up  the  grave. 

320 


CLIMATE    OF    PRAHSU 

My  answer  to  King  Koffee  stated  the  terms  upon  which  I 
would  make  peace.  I  warned  him  that  I  was  about  to  invade 
his  kingdom  from  four  different  points  :  by  the  Wassah  road, 
from  Prahsu,  from  western  and  also  from  eastern  Akim  to 
enforce  those  terms  should  he  refuse  to  accept  them.  I 
impressed  upon  him  that  hitherto  his  soldiers  had  only  fought 
against  black  men  helped  by  Englishmen,  but  that  unless  he 
hastened  to  accept  my  terms  he  would  have  to  meet  an  army 
of  white  troops. 

Up  to  the  last  I  honestly  did  all  I  thought  most  likely  to 
secure  a  good  and  promising  peace  without  fighting.  I  felt 
quite  certain  of  victory,  as  who  would  not  have  done  with  the 
men  I  had  about  me  ?  I  did  not  mind  much  how  many  I 
might  lose  in  action,  for  soldiers  are  made  to  die  there — and 
oh  !  how  fortunate  they  are  who  do  so — but  I  was  well  aware 
that  every  extra  day's  detention  in  that  deadly  climate  meant 
grievous  sickness  to  hundreds,  and  death  to  many.  This  loss 
of  life  from  disease  was  the  factor  in  my  calculation  most 
difficult  to  deal  with,  and  always  the  most  horrible  to  contem- 
plate. 

I  was  agreeably  surprised  to  find  the  climate  of  Prahsu  so 
pleasant.  We  had  only  had  one  day's  rain  since  leaving 
Cape  Coast  Castle,  and  as  the  Harmattan  wind  had  set  in, 
there  was  so  little  moisture  in  the  air  that  the  skin  soon 
assumed  its  normal  condition.  The  days  were  hot,  of  course, 
but  the  nights  were  positively  cool  and  conducive  to  sleep. 
At  night  the  Great  Bear  and  the  Southern  Cross  both  lit  up 
the  camp,  making  the  scene  even  more  than  usually  pictur- 
esque. There  was  nothing  wanting  to  make  it  quite  beauti- 
ful but  horses,  and  their  absence  was  felt  for  many  reasons. 
But  no  horses  would  live  long  there,  nor  could  we  have  found 
suitable  food  for  them. 

VOL.  II.  321  Y 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

The  transport  difficulties  were  now  at  their  height ;  all  the 
carriers  intended  for  the  Welsh  Fusiliers  had  bolted  in  a  body, 
and  every  post  brought  me  news  of  further  desertions.  In 
fact,  the  black  men  of  our  protectorate  still  firmly  believed 
that  the  Ashantees  would  "  make  mince-meat  of  us."  I  was 
for  the  nonce  compelled  to  stop  aU  further  disembarkation  of 
troops,  and  in  order  not  to  interfere  with  the  formation  of 
reserve  supplies  at  Prahsu,  I  had  for  the  moment  to  convert 
the  West  India  soldiers  and  aU  of  Wood's  Regiment  into 
carriers.  The  load  of  the  carrier  in  the  protectorate  was 
only  50  lbs.,  so  the  daily  labour  imposed  was  not  excessive, 
and  those  soldiers  whilst  so  employed  received  extra  pay. 

The  Commissariat  Department  had  promised  I  should 
have  ample  provisions  for  the  campaign  at  Prahsu  by 
January  15,  the  date  I  had  fixed  for  crossing  the  Prah  River. 
This  failure  in  our  transport  arrangements  made  me  aU  the 
more  anxious  to  obtain  a  good  peace  without  fighting, 
although  I  was  well  aware  what  a  grievous  disappointment 
that  would  be  to  all  the  ardent  spirits  surrounding  and 
helping  me. 

I  felt  my  position  deeply,  for  it  was  truly  humiliating  to  be 
at  the  mercy  of  these  worthless  and  contemptible  Fantees. 
However,  being  of  a  hopeful  temperament  and  imbued  with 
the  firmest  trust  in  God's  assistance,  I  put  on  a  smiling  face 
and  met  my  difficulties  with  a  sort  of  defiance.  In  the  Red 
River  Expedition  I  had  to  bring  back  my  regular  troops  over 
a  range  of  mountains  before  ice  should  close  the  lakes  and 
rivers,  and  here,  in  equatorial  Africa,  I  was  again  pressed  by 
Time's  inexorable  clock,  having  to  accomplish  my  task  before 
the  great  rains  set  in. 

Major  Colley  had  already  begun  to  evolve  order  out  of  con- 
fusion.    For  a  long  time  he  had  10,000  carriers  in  pay,  and 

322 


SIR    ANTHONY    HOME,    1873 

the  system  he  estabhshed  soon  began  to  work  with  a  mechan- 
ical precision.  Thanks  to  him  the  delay  occasioned  by  the 
previous  want  of  system  was  soon  rectified. 

Throughout  these  early  operations  I  had  the  good  fortune 
to  have  with  meSirAnthonyHome,  V.C.,oneof  the  ablest  and 
most  hard-working  of  military  doctors  I  ever  knew  ;  a  man 
who  loved  his  profession  and  who  never  spared  himself  in  any 
way.  He  had  been  surgeon  to  my  battalion  during  the 
Indian  Mutiny,  and  was  as  remarkable  for  his  coolness  under 
fire  as  for  his  medical  skiU.  He  was  a  serious  thinker  and  a 
weU  read  companion  whom  it  was  always  a  real  pleasure  to  be 
with.  Inchned,  however,  by  disposition  and  innate  caution 
to  take  rather  a  sad  than  a  bright  view  of  life,  when  he  told 
any  of  my  special  service  officers  they  had  fever  and  must 
take  to  their  beds  they  were  wont  to  resent  his  decision.  He 
was  always  right,  however,  though  this  "  never  give  in  " 
trait  in  their  character  was  much  to  their  credit,  and  contri- 
buted largely  and  directly  to  the  success  of  the  war.  All 
were  afraid  to  go  near  Dr.  Home  when  they  felt  a  little  out  of 
sorts  lest  he  should  put  them  on  the  sick  list,  and  worse  stiU, 
send  them  home  or  even  to  Madeira  for  a  trip.  In  many 
instances  I  had  to  order  men  to  go  on  the  sick  list  who, 
although  in  a  high  fever,  had  positively  refused  to  admit 
there  was  anything  wrong  with  them. 

Towards  the  end  of  October,  a  dear  friend,  a  congenial 
spirit,  an  old  and  trusted  comrade,  Captain,  now  General  Sir 
WiUiam  Butler,  had  joined  me  at  Cape  Coast  Castle.  He 
had  done  right  good  service  during  our  Expedition  to  the  Red 
River,  where  I  came  to  know  him  weU,  to  admire  his  brilliant 
ability  and  to  value  his  friendship  highly.  Possessing  the 
warmest  and  most  chivalrous  of  hearts,  had  he  lived  in 
mediaeval  times,  he  would  have  been  the  knight  errant  of 

323 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

everyone  in  distress.  Sympathy  for  all  human,  indeed  for 
all  animal  suffering,  was  in  him  an  active  living  force,  always 
striving  to  help  the  poor  in  body,  and  to  comfort  the  weak- 
hearted.  A  loyal  subject  of  the  Crown,  he  yet  always  enter- 
tained a  heartfelt  sympathy  for  those  whom  he  believed  to  be 
of  a  down-trodden  race,  and  a  lost  cause  appealed  to  all  his 
deepest  feelings.  He  was  the  first  to  recommend  the  raising 
of  a  regiment  of  Irish  Foot  Guards,  and  he  has  lived  to  see 
carried  out  what  he  was  scouted  at  and  ridiculed  for  by  some 
unwise  men  at  the  time.  Amongst  my  many  comrades  he 
was  remarkable  for  that  inestimable  gift  in  a  commander,  a 
keenly  bright  and  lively  imagination,  an  essential  quality  in 
which  it  would  seem  we  were  somewhat  deficient  during  our 
recent  long  war  in  South  Africa. 

He  was  just  the  soldier  I  wanted  for  a  mission  to  the  King 
of  Western  Akim.  He  possessed  all  the  qualities  required 
for  such  an  independent  undertaking.  Of  an  iron  constitution 
and  indomitable  energy,  he  was  also  an  experienced  traveller 
in  wild  and  little  known  lands.     In  him  the  daring  of  his  race 

as  tempered  by  discretion,  whilst  a  rare  originality  helped 

J  ambition  which  burned  within  him.  Above  all  things, 
he  would  be  on  this  mission  his  own  master. 

He  reached  Accra  in  a  gunboat  on  November  4,  and  at 
once  started  inland  to  find  the  miserable  creature  styled  the 
King  of  Akim,  who  had  been  informed  of  his  mission.  His 
orders  were  to  induce  that  royal  personage  to  close  in  upon 
Amanquatia's  army,  then  trying  to  re-cross  into  Ashantee 
at  Prahsu,  where  the  river  was  wide  and  at  that  time  unford- 
able.  He  soon  discovered  that  the  King  and  all  his  male 
relatives  were  arrant  cowards,  and  that  his  subjects  resembled 
their  sovereign  in  that  respect.  In  fact,  the  Akim  monarch's 
army  was  a  sham,  and  its  behaviour  reminded  one  of  the 

324 


SIR   WILLIAM    BUTLER,    1873 

negro  burlesques  which  often  afford  amusement  at  country 
fairs. 

Unable  to  induce  the  King  to  fulfil  his  promise  to  invade 
Ashantee,  Captain  Butler,  to  show  him  how  sacred  was  the 
word  of  a  British  officer,  crossed  the  Prah  near  Berouassee 
on  the  day  fixed  for  doing  so,  having  with  him  only  a  couple 
of  British  officers  and  a  few  Fantee  policemen  !  The  place 
of  crossing  was  about  thirty  miles  above  Prahsu,  and  about 
a  like  distance  below  the  point  where  Captain  Glover  crossed 
it  at  the  same  time.  The  last-named  officer  was  also  un- 
successful in  inducing  the  local  "  braves  "  to  whom  he  had 
been  commissioned  to  cross  the  Prah,  but  he  took  with  him 
into  Ashantee  800  well  armed  and  fairly  trained  Houssas 
who  were  reliable  as  fighting  men. 

No  one  ever  worked  harder  or  under  greater  difficulties  than 
Captain  Butler  in  this  campaign.  Though  suffering  from 
fever  he  would  not  give  in,  and  in  the  end,  after  many  heart- 
breaking delays,  he  at  last  succeeded  in  persuading  this 
chicken-hearted  King  and  his  noisy  rabble  to  cross  the 
"  Sacred  River  "  also. 

On  January  27,  with  about  14,000  of  these  useless  rascals, 
he  reached  Akim,  not  more  than  twenty  miles  east  of  the 
road  by  which  our  army  was  advancing  upon  Koomassee. 
There  he  found  himself  near  the  Ashantee  outposts,  a  fact 
which  so  alarmed  his  wretched  following  that  the  King  of 
Akim  and  his  chiefs  resolved  to  retreat.  They  packed  up 
their  small  amount  of  baggage  in  a  hurry  and  off  they  went 
to  the  rear.  No  remonstrances  had  any  effect.  They  were 
afraid  of  the  Ashantees  ;  that  was  enough,  and  so  ended 
Captain  Butler's  mission  to  the  King  of  Western  Akim.^ 

^  I  do  not  know  a  more  pitiful  story  than  that  told  by  Sir  William 
Butler  in  his  book,  Akimfoo,  the  History  of  a  Failure.     He  and  his 

325 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

Although  neither  he  nor  Captain  Glover  was  able  to  engage 
the  Ashantee  army,  I  have  no  doubt  the  news  received  at 
Koomassee  of  their  having  crossed  the  Prah  about  the  same 
time  as  the  main  army,  and  of  their  having  marched  towards 
that  city,  each  with  a  considerable  following,  had  an  effect 
upon  the  nerves  of  King  Koffee  and  his  chiefs. 

Captain  Glover  had  as  much  difficulty  with  the  Akim 
kings  as  Captain  Butler  had  encountered,  notwithstanding 
his  long  previous  experience  in  the  ways  of  the  West  Coast 
rulers.  He  and  the  other  officers  with  him  never  spared 
themselves.  They  worked  hard  and  bravely  under  great 
difficulties  and  deserved  success,  but  it  was  not  destined  to 
crown  their  efforts. 

Captain  Glover  was  informed  by  me  on  December  ii, 
1873,  how  affairs  stood  on  the  Cape  Coast  Castle-Koomassee 
road.  He  was  told  I  could  not  have  everything  ready  to 
cross  at  Prahsu  before  January  15,  1874,  upon  which  day 
I  expected  him  to  be  also  on  the  Prah.  I  left  him  "  the 
fullest  latitude  in  the  selection  of  the  points  on  the  Prah 
where  you  will  cross  that  river,"  etc.  His  answer  of  Decem- 
ber 14  to  that  letter  was,  "  I  shall  be  established  on  the  banks 
of  the  River  Prah  by  January  15,  with  all  the  available 
force  that  I  may  be  enabled  to  assemble.  Bozoroo,  in  Eastern 
Akim,  one  day's  journey  in  rear  of  river  Prah,  will  be  my 
principal  depot  from  which  my  advance  will  be  on  Juabin." 

But  in  this  forecast  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment  ; 
and  yet  there  was  no  man  who  could  influence  those  cowardly 
fellows  as  he  could.     If  his  knowledge  of  the  country  and  its 

gallant  companions,  Captains  Brabazon  and  Paget,  though  all 
struck  down  by  the  terrible  fever  which  rages  in  the  dark  forests  of 
that  gold-bearing  country,  struggled  manfully  on  under  every 
species  of  heart-breaking  disappointment. 

326 


CAPTAIN    GLOVER'S    OPERATIONS 

people,  joined  to  a  tireless  energy,  indomitable  pluck,  and 
great  tact  in  dealing  with  natives  could  not  secure  their 
obedience,  it  was  of  no  use  for  any  one  else  to  hope  for 
success. 

He  wrote  to  me  on  December  22  that  he  saw  no  possi- 
bility of  being  able  to  cross  the  Prah  before  February  i. 
As  I  read  that  statement  I  pitied  him  with  all  my  heart,  for 
I  weU  understood  how  much  that  confession  of  failure  must 
have  cost  a  brave  and  sanguine  man.  I  knew  he  cordially 
wished  to  co-operate  with  me  and  to  help  in  the  great  object 
which  I  had  been  sent  out  to  achieve,  but  he  had  trusted  the 
worthless  negro  chiefs  and  they  had  deceived  him.  My 
answer  was  a  positive  order  that  with  all  the  Houssas  and 
disciplined  troops  at  his  disposal  he  was  to  move  without 
delay  by  the  shortest  route  to  the  point  on  the  Prah  he  had 
previously  selected  to  cross  at.  In  a  private  note  of  the  same 
date  I  explained  my  plans  and  pressed  upon  him  the  fact 
that  the  first  object  was  to  defeat  the  Ashantee  army  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  having  done  this  to  send  home  the  British 
troops  without  delay.  "  You  wiU,  therefore,"  I  said,  "  make 
this  your  one  object.  If  necessary  to  its  attainment,  you 
will  break  off  all  operations  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Volta, 
which  have  no  direct  bearing  upon  the  main  issue."  I 
wound  up  by  saying  plainly  :  "  Unless  you  can  accomplish 
this,  no  matter  what  may  be  your  success  with  the  Awoonbas, 
you  must  clearly  see  that,  as  far  as  this  war  between  England 
and  Ashantee  is  concerned,  you  might  just  as  well  be  operat- 
ing on  the  Zanzibar  coast  as  in  the  Awoonba  district."  I 
added :  "  From  what  I  know  of  you,  I  feel  that  if  what  I 
require  of  you  could  be  accomplished  by  any  one  it  will  be 
so  by  you."  It  cost  me  much  to  write  this,  for  I  sincerely 
felt  for  all  his  disappointed  hopes,  but  I  was  responsible  for 

327 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

the  main  issue  at  stake,  and  that  came  before  all  other  con- 
siderations. He  would  not  have  been  human  had  he  not 
felt  how  much  my  orders  upset — at  least  for  the  time — all 
his  own  great  plans  for  the  future.  But  like  a  gentleman, 
having  pointed  out  to  me  the  dangers  he  conceived  I  was 
deliberately  incurring,  he  obeyed  orders,  and  did  all  he 
could — though  much  was  not  in  his  power — to  further  the 
object  I  had  in  view. 

A  bridge  head  was  constructed  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
river  at  Prahsu,  and  Russell's  Regiment  was  sent  to  garrison 
it.  Lord  Gifford  with  his  scouts,  always  about  ten  miles 
ahead  of  the  army,  was  now  in  daily  touch  with  the  enemy. 

The  Ashantee  Embassy  started  on  their  return  journey  on 
January  6.  I  hoped  their  report  to  the  King  that  when 
on  the  march  they  had  passed  through  a  column  of  white 
men  moving  towards  Koomassee,  might  induce  him  and  his 
Ministers  to  believe  that  we  had  already  begun  the  invasion 
of  his  kingdom.  As  soon  as  the  Embassy  with  all  its  belong- 
ings was  well  out  of  sight,  the  Naval  Brigade  were  to  return 
to  Prahsu. 

The  envoy  looked  terrified  as  he  passed  through  the  Naval 
Brigade,  and  sent  me  back  a  message  to  beg  I  would  advance 
no  further  untO.  I  had  received  his  King's  answer.  It  reached 
me  on  January  12,  and  with  it  came  one  of  the  German 
missionaries  who  had  been  a  prisoner  in  Koomassee  for 
nearly  four  years.  What  he  had  to  tell,  though  very  inter- 
esting, was  of  little  value  to  me.  The  refrain  of  the  King's 
letter  was  an  earnest  appeal,  that  to  "  prevent  further  mis- 
understandings "  I  should  not  advance  beyond  my  present 
camp,  "  for  fear  of  meeting  some  of  my  (his)  captains  as  to 
cause  fighting."  He  begged  to  be  allowed  to  keep  Mr. 
Dawson  with  him  as  the  only  person  he  had  who  could  write 

328 


LETTERS  TO  AND  FROM  KING  KOFFEE 

and  interpret  English  letters.  What  he  wanted  was,  he  said, 
a  treaty  of  peace. 

I  sent  back  the  messengers  next  day  to  the  King  with  my 
answer,  in  which  I  expressed  my  pleasure  at  his  desire  for 
peace.  But  I  could  not,  I  said,  proceed  further  with  negotia- 
tions until  he  had  sent  me  the  other  prisoners  detained  at 
Koomassee.  I  reminded  him  that  I  had  already  told  him  the 
terms  upon  which  I  was  prepared  to  make  peace,  and  that 
untn  they  were  complied  with  I  could  not  "  halt  any  of  my 
four  armies  "  then  advancing  upon  Koomassee.  I  added, 
that  with  a  view  to  the  future  maintenance  of  peace  it  was 
essential  that  he  and  his  people  should  clearly  understand 
that  they  could  no  more  prevent  an  English  army  from 
marching  into  his  territory,  whenever  his  hostile  proceedings 
might  make  such  a  step  necessary,  than  he  could  stop  the 
sun  from  rising  daily. 

This  second  letter  from  the  King  showed  how  much  the 
passage  of  his  previous  messengers  through  a  body  of  white 
troops  on  the  march  towards  Koomassee  had  seriously 
affected  his  nerves. 

By  January  14,  Lord  Gifford  with  his  scouts  and  a 
company  of  Russell's  Regiment  had  reached  the  foot  of  the 
Adansee  hills,  some  twenty  miles  from  Prahsu  on  the  Koo- 
massee road.  The  remainder  of  Russell's  Regiment  was 
close  behind.  That  same  day  a  strong  detachment  of  the 
2nd  West  India  Regiment,  followed  the  day  after  by  Rait's 
Artillery  and  Wood's  Regiment,  crossed  at  Prahsu.  This 
force,  which  constituted  my  advanced  guard  under  Colonel 
McLeod,  of  the  Royal  Highlanders,  seized  the  Adansee  hills 
on  January  15,  the  enemy's  scouting  parties  falling  back 
before  it. 


329 


CHAPTER    XLVIII 

The  Ashantee  War 

MY  headquarters  crossed  the  Prah  on  January  20, 
that  was  five  days  later  than  my  original  calcula- 
tion. But  as  I  met  with  no  resistance  at  first,  I  was  able  to 
reach  the  Adansee  hills  as  early  as  I  had  originally  reckoned 
upon.  I  was  indeed  glad  to  leave  Prahsu  behind — pretty 
as  that  clearance  was  with  all  its  busy  camp  life — to 
dive  into  the  depths  of  the  dark,  mysterious  forest  which 
now  lay  between  us  and  our  goal,  the  Ashantee  capital. 

The  satisfaction  of  feeling  that  we  had  at  last  begun  our 
invasion  of  the  Ashantee  kingdom  was,  however,  sadly  marred 
by  the  death  that  day  from  fever  and  dysentery  of  Captain 
Huyshe,  of  the  Rifle  Brigade.  He  had  worked  unremittingly 
towards  the  accomplishment  of  that  invasion,  but  Providence 
decreed  he  was  not  to  see  it.  He  had  been  my  aide  de  camp 
during  the  Red  River  Expedition,  and  up  to  his  falling  ill  at 
Prahsu,  he  had  zealously  discharged  the  intelligence  and 
topographical  duties  with  great  advantage  to  the  public 
service.  From  my  personal  intercourse  with  him  I  had 
come  to  know  his  fine,  soldierly  qualities.  A  thorough  gentle- 
man and  a  keen  soldier,  he  lies  buried  beneath  a  great  cotton 
tree  at  Prahsu. 

My  white  soldiers  and  sailors  had  no  longer  the  comfortable 
huts  fitted  with  bedsteads  which  had  been  provided  for  them 

330 


COMMODORE    SIR    W.    HEWETT 

at  every  station  south  of  the  Prah.  Until  they  returned  to 
Prahsu  they  had  to  sleep  on  the  damp  soil,  of  decaying  and 
decayed  vegetable  matter.  This  was  injurious  to  the  white 
man's  health,  and  our  soldiers  soon  began  to  suffer  from 
fevers  in  consequence.  My  sick  list  grew  larger  every  day, 
making  me  more  anxious  than  ever  to  end  the  war  with  all 
possible  haste. 

At  Accrafoomu,  our  second  stage  beyond  the  Prah,  I  was 
joined  by  Commodore  Sir  William  Hewett,  V.C.  He  com- 
manded the  naval  squadron  on  the  coast,  and  was  the 
cheeriest  and  best  of  lion-hearted  comrades.  He  had  done 
everything  man  could  do  to  help  us,  indeed  I  never  asked  him 
for  anything  he  did  not  freely  give,  allowing  none  of  what 
always  appears  to  soldiers  the  curious  and  incomprehensible 
niceties  of  naval  etiquette  to  interfere  with  what  he  felt  to  be 
for  the  general  good  of  the  Queen's  Service.  He  was  very 
highly  esteemed  by  his  own  men,  and  he  soon  became  equally 
so  by  all  ranks  of  the  army.  Upon  his  arrival  in  camp  he 
was  warmly  and  loudly  cheered  by  all.  No  one  could 
know  him  without  becoming  personally  attached  to  him,  and 
no  soldier  or  sailor  could  be  with  him  in  action  without  being 
proud  of  him  as  a  comrade  and  as  a  fellow  countryman. 

Soon  after  crossing  the  Prah,  we  found  a  white  cord 
stretched  from  tree  to  tree  along  our  road.  It  was  evidently 
meant  as  a  fetish  ;  a  native  report  said  the  idea  had  been 
taken  from  our  telegraph  wire,  which  the  Ashantees  believed 
to  be  a  great  English  fetish. 

The  dense  forests  through  which  our  road  now  lay  are  very 
fine.  They  may  be  the  breeding  ground  of  deadly  diseases, 
but  they  are  truly  beautiful  to  look  upon.  They  consist  of 
what  I  may  describe  as  three  distinct  stories.  The  ground- 
floor  story  is  made  up  of  the  ordinary  close,  tropical  bush,  of 

331 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  in  height,  through  which  the  true 
forest  trees  of  equatorial  Africa  push  their  thick  lofty  stems 
and  big  branches  to  form  the  second  story.  These  are  of  about 
the  same  size  as  the  great  forest  trees  of  Western  Europe. 
The  third  story,  towering  over  and  far  above  the  other  two, 
is  formed  by  the  straight  and  smooth-stemmed  cotton  tree, 
with  its  mushroom-shaped  roof,  many  being  over  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  in  height.  The  big  parrots  of  this  region  when 
perched  upon  them  look  no  larger  than  English  robins.  This 
tree  has  no  branches  until  close  to  the  top  of  its  pillar-like 
stem,  where  they  shoot  out  almost  horizontally,  like  the  iron 
stays  of  a  great  and  shallow  umbrella.  A  large  inverted 
green  saucer  placed  on  the  nozzle  of  a  tall  and  massive  silver 
candlestick,  would  convey  a  good  idea  of  what  the  cotton  tree 
looks  like.  Its  polished  stem  of  soft  and  pearly  grey  tapers 
little,  and  being  great  in  circumference  all  the  way  up  to  where 
the  branches  spring  from  it  resembles  in  shape  the  "  tall 
bully  "  that  "  lifts  its  head  and  lies  "  near  London  Bridge. 
The  round  stand  of  the  candlestick  represents  the  roots. 
They  go  little  into  the  ground,  but  mostly  rest  upon  it  as  the 
stand  of  the  candlestick  rests  upon  a  table.  Rising  up  from 
the  outer  edge  of  that  stand  are  great  projecting  buttresses 
often  covering  a  circle  of  ground  that  would  measure  a  couple 
of  hundred  feet  in  circumference.  Those  ribbed  buttresses 
add  much  to  the  stability  of  the  tree  and  to  the  magnificence 
of  its  imposing  appearance.  No  one  of  these  trees,  can,  I 
believe,  stand  alone  if  you  cut  down  the  two  lower  stories 
of  forest  growth  which  surround  and  shelter  it  from  the  wind. 
But  what  strikes  the  stranger  most  in  this  weirdly-dark 
forest  scenery,  are  the  thousands  of  twisted  creepers  and 
winders  of  aU  shapes  and  sizes  which  cross  and  recross  one 
another,  the  smaller  ones  hanging  in  tangled  masses  festooned 

332 


THE    ASHANTEE    FOREST 

between  the  trees,  like  the  tangled  locks  of  some  giant  Meg 
Merillies.  Many  of  these  creepers  are  thicker  than  a  man's 
wrist,  and  to  get  through  this  lower  jungle  you  must  cut  them, 
for  none  will  break.  Twisted  round  them  again,  are  usually 
others  of  a  tougher  and  more  cordlike  quality  which  compress 
the  expansion  of  those  round  which  they  twine,  pinching 
them  into  the  spiral  regularity  of  a  corkscrew.  These  great 
winders  hanging  from  branch  to  branch  in  vast  quantities, 
at  every  angle  and  in  puzzling  irregularity,  bar  the  way  to  all 
who  would  pass  in  any  direction.  They  are  like  the  stout 
wire  netting  with  which  ships  of  war  protect  themselves 
against  torpedoes.  Look  down  any  chance  opening  in  the 
depths  of  this  awe-inspiring  forest  of  green  and  dripping 
foliage,  and  as  the  gentle  wind  sways  about  these  ropes  and 
coils  of  brown  creepers,  one  thinks  of  the  loose  shrouds, 
broken  stays  and  halyards  and  confused  mass  of  rigging  that 
hang  from  yard  and  mast  of  the  old  and  once  beautiful  "three 
deckers  "  still  to  be  seen  as  ruins  in  the  neglected  backwaters 
of  our  naval  harbours. 

The  surface  of  these  forests  is  strewn  with  fallen  timber  of 
all  shapes  and  sizes,  the  accumulation  of  ages,  piled  there 
pell  mell  like  so  many  spilikins  and  in  every  gradation  of 
vegetable  decay.  Through  them  and  around  them  spring 
up  at  places  myriads  of  brightly  coloured  flowers  and  huge 
sombre  ferns.  Practically,  all  progress  through  these  forests 
is  impossible  for  troops,  and  even  for  an  individual  it  is  slow 
in  the  extreme  and  most  fatiguing. 

Plants  hidden  from  all  sunlight  soon  lose  colour  and  if  the 
native  races  who  live  in  or  have  daily  to  traverse  these  dark 
jungles  are  constituted  as  we  are,  they  ought  to  be  a  sad  non- 
laughing  people.  There  is  something  indescribably  ghostly 
in  the  midday  twilight  of  these  forests.     It  was  depressing* 

333 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

uncanny  work  to  march  long  distances  through  them,  or  to 
live  amidst  such  a  tangled  steamy  mass  of  perpetual  green, 
where  you  can  only  see  a  few  yards  ahead,  and  where  little 
sunlight  ever  penetrates  to  brighten  the  path  or  to  gladden 
the  wayfarer.  I  never  saw  an  animal  during  our  march  to 
Koomassee,  not  even  a  rat  or  a  snake,  though  I  was  told 
there  were  many  of  both.  But  if  animals  are  rare,  columns 
of  ants  in  myriads  cross  your  path  everywhere  with  all  the 
earnestness  of  serious  occupation  for  which  that  industrious 
race  is  proverbial. 

Headquarters  reached  Moinsee  at  the  foot  of  the  Adansee 
hills,  January  23,  1874,  where  I  met  messengers  with  a 
letter  from  King  Koffee  and  with  the  remainder  of  the  Euro- 
pean prisoners,  consisting  of  the  Frenchman,  Mr.  Bonnat, 
and  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ramsey er  with  two  children,  one  a  baby 
recently  born.  Having  thus  obtained  their  release  I  felt 
myself  much  freer  to  act.  In  this  letter  the  king  said  he 
would  pay  the  £200,000  I  had  demanded,  but  expressed  grief 
at  our  rapid  advance  and  begged  me  to  stop.  My  answer 
was  that  for  the  present  I  would  advance  but  slowly  to  give 
him  time  to  comply  with  the  preliminary  terms  of  the  treaty, 
which  were  :  the  immediate  release  of  the  Fantee  prisoners 
whom  he  still  detained  at  Koomassee  :  that  pending  the  con- 
clusion of  peace  he  should  send  me  as  hostages  his  mother 
and  also  the  brother  who  was  his  heir  :  and  the  immediate 
delivery  of  one  half  of  the  gold  he  had  now  agreed  to  pay. 
That  when  he  had  complied  with  these  terms  I  would  halt 
the  army  and  proceed  to  Koomassee  with  a  guard  of  500 
British  soldiers  to  sign  the  treaty.  It  was  for  him  to  decide 
whether  I  went  there  as  a  friend  or  as  an  enemy. 

Two  days  later  Headquarters  were  moved  to  the  nice  clean 
town  of  Fommanah,  beyond  the  Adansee  hills,where  I  halted 

334 


THE    ADANSEE    HILLS 

four  days  to  form  a  supply  depot  and  to  close  up  the  troops 
from  the  rear.  The  delay  would  also  show  King  Koffee  that 
I  meant  to  keep  to  my  promise  of  advancing  slowly  in  order 
to  give  him  time  to  arrange  for  complying  with  my  demands. 
Thanks  to  the  untiring  energy  of  Captain  Home,  the  road  so 
far  was  well  cut,  every  stream  being  bridged.  Entrench- 
ments had  been  constructed  at  all  the  stations  beyond  the 
fortified  bridgehead  at  Prahsu,  and  large  storehouses  had 
been  erected  at  each  of  them.  These  places  were  made 
secure  from  any  attack  the  enemy  knew  how  to  make  upon 
them. 

Fommanah  possesses  a  very  tidy  palace  and  several  good 
well-kept  houses.  I  was  much  surprised  to  find  so  many 
signs  of  civilization  in  it.  The  houses  have  much  steeper 
roofs  than  are  to  be  seen  near  the  coast ;  the  house  I  occupied 
was  quite  a  pleasant  residence. 

The  scenery  on  and  around  the  Adansee  hills  was  delightful. 
We  seemed  to  breathe  more  freely  on  that  elevated  ground, 
where  also  the  forest  was  much  less  thick  and  dreary.  The 
day  I  reached  Moinsee  Captain  Butler  was  at  Enoonsu,  about 
twenty  miles  east-north-east  of  Fommanah, with  a  small  force 
of  Western  Akims  :  Captain  Glover  with  a  strong  battalion 
of  Houssas  at  Abogoo,  some  forty  miles  north-east  of  that 
same  place,  and  Captains  Moore  and  Dalrymple  at  Kotakee, 
west  of  the  Prah,  about  twelve  miles  south-west  of  Prahsu 
and  some  thirty  miles  south  of  Fommanah.  The  presence 
of  these  officers  in  Ashantee  must  have  told  upon  King 
Koffee's  nerves,  although  their  columns,  being  composed 
exclusively  of  natives,  were  not  dreaded  like  the  British  force 
then  marching  straight  for  the  capital  and  already  within 
thirty  miles  of  it. 

Fommanah  and  all  the  surrounding  villages  were  deserted. 

335 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

No  inhabitants  were  to  be  found  anywhere,  though  we  knew 
we  were  closely  watched  by  Ashantee  scouts  in  all  directions. 
There,  however,  rumours  reached  me  through  spies,  and  they 
were  corroborated  by  the  prisoners  we  captured  daily,  that 
the  enemy  were  collecting  in  great  force  at  Amoaful  under 
Amanquatia.  That  place  was  only  about  thirteen  or  four- 
teen miles  further  on  towards  Koomassee,  and  my  advanced 
guard  was  already  at  a  village  about  half  way  between  it  and 
Fommanah.  I  halted  four  days  at  Fommanah  to  collect 
supplies  to  enable  me  to  push  forward  rapidly  when  the 
moment  came  for  the  capture  of  Koomassee,  and  my  doing 
so  also  fitted  in  with  the  general  tenour  of  my  communica- 
tions with  the  King.  If  he  meant  peace,  as  he  said  he  did, 
my  stay  at  Fommanah  would  seem  a  concession  to  his  earnest 
request  that  I  should  do  so. 

January  29  I  pushed  forward  my  Headquarters  about 
seven  or  eight  miles,  and  as  I  was  in  the  act  of  camping 
received  further  letters  from  the  King  begging  me  to  halt. 
Within  ten  minutes  of  the  messenger's  arrival  he  was  on  his 
return  journey  with  my  answer.  It  was  to  the  effect  that 
having  thus  halted  at  Fommanah  to  please  him — may  God 
forgive  me  that  fib — and  to  give  him  time  to  carry  out  the 
terms  of  peace  he  had  agreed  to,  I  now  found  he  had  used 
that  time  in  collecting  an  army  to  fight.  I  would  therefore 
halt  no  more. 

Mr.  Dawson — the  native  interpreter  I  had  left  with  the 
King  for  the  convenience  of  correspondence — said  in  a  note  : 
"See  2  Cor.  ii.  11."  That  verse  is:  ''^  Lest  Satan  should 
get  an  advantage  of  us  :  for  we  are  not  ignorant  of  his  devices.''^ 
He  evidently  intended  to  warn  me  against  treachery,  and  I 
gathered  from  the  general  tenour  of  his  communication  that 
the  King  meant  to  fight.     On  January  29,  the  Adansees 

336 


CAPTAIN    REDVERS    BULLER 

were  cleared  out  of  the  position  they  had  taken  up  to  the 
westward  of  the  main  road.  The  affair  was  a  complete 
success,  but  I  had  one  officer  killed,  Captain  Nichol,  the 
adjutant  of  the  Hants  Militia,  who  was  an  elderly  man.  He 
lost  his  life  through  his  humane  feeling,  for  had  he  not  re- 
strained our  men  from  firing  there  would  have  been  no 
enemy  left  in  the  direction  from  which  the  bullet  came  that 
killed  him.  The  enemy  left  behind  about  fifty  of  their  dead, 
so  their  total  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  must  have  been 
heavy.  Several  Ashantees  were  taken,  a  slave  woman 
amongst  them,  whose  master  before  he  bolted  had  tried  to 
shoot  her.  He  had  fired  twice,  hitting  her  both  times.  She 
said  the  King  had  promised  his  chiefs  he  would  take  the  field 
himself,  and  she  was  certain  that  he  meant  to  come  by  the 
main  road.  Our  surgeon  extracted  all  but  one  of  the  slugs 
her  brutal  master  had  hit  her  with,  and  we  gave  her  clothing 
to  cover  her  absolute  nakedness. . 

That  most  zealous  of  "  Intelligence "  officers.  Captain 
Redvers  BuUer,  had  sent  an  Ashantee  spy  into  the  enemy's 
camp  the  evening  before,  from  whom  he  learnt  that  the  main 
force  of  the  enemy  was  on  rising  ground  about  one  mile  short 
of  the  village  of  Amoaful.  He  described  their  position  well. 
They  intended  to  follow  their  usual  battle  tactics,  that  of 
drawing  on  their  enemy  in  front  and  when  they  had  succeeded 
in  doing  so,  to  pounce  upon  his  flanks  and  so  cut  off  his 
reserves  in  rear. 

It  was  a  great  relief  to  all  my  comrades  to  feel  that  the 
question  of  "  peace  or  war  " — so  often  debated  amongst 
them — was  solved  at  last,  for  it  was  now  evident  the  King 
meant  to  fight.  His  pretended  negotiations  were  only  de- 
signed to  throw  me  off  my  guard  in  order  to  give  him  a  better 
opportunity  of  destroying  us  at  a  disadvantage.     He  had 

VOL.  II.  337  z 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

utterly  failed  in  this  object,  and  also  in  his  endeavours  to 
induce  me  to  halt.^  The  halts  I  made  were  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  enable  me  to  construct  the  road,  to  bridge  the  many 
streams  we  had  to  cross,  and  to  bring  up  sufficient  supplies 
of  food  and  ammunition  for  the  advance  upon  Koomassee, 
and  also  for  the  return  journey  to  the  coast.  I  had  endeav- 
oured to  make  King  Koffee  believe  that  my  halts  were 
made  as  a  concession  to  his  urgent  requests  on  the  subject, 
but  had  I  been  absolutely  certain  from  the  first  that  he  meant 
to  fight  I  could  not  have  met  him  at  Amoaful  a  day  earlier. 
I  had  offered  him  fair  terms,  but  neither  he  nor  his  chiefs 
would  accept  them  because  they  firmly  believed  they  could 
destroy  any  army  with  which  we  could  cross  the  Prah.  And 
now,  when  upon  the  point  of  attacking  him  in  the  position  he 
had  selected,  I  felt  my  men  were  fuUy  equal  to  the  task  before 
them.  My  communications  with  Prahsu  were  protected 
by  eight  fortified  posts,  all  weU  manned  and  provisioned,  and 
quite  able  to  resist  any  attack  an  enemy  without  artillery 
could  make  upon  them.  I  was  sorry  he  had  not  selected  a 
position  nearer  his  capital,  for  my  desire  was  to  deliver  my 
decisive  blow  sufficiently  near  it  to  admit  of  my  pursuing 
the  beaten  army  into  its  streets,  and  to  take  possession  of  it 
as  the  immediate  result  of  a  victory.  I  was  anxious  to  finish 
the  war  with  one  big  fight :  but  the  King's  determination  to 
fight  at  Amoaful  made  it  tolerably  certain  I  should  have  two 
battles,  which  was  a  disappointment.  Throughout  this  war 
my  one  longing  was  to  end  it  with  all  possible  speed,  as 
every  extra  day  it  lasted,  meant  more  deaths  from  fever. 
This  thought  was  never  absent  from  my  mind. 

My  little  army  breakfasted  early,  and  moved  off  at  day- 

^  I  afterwards  learnt  the  Ashantees  nicknamed  me  "  The  man 
who  would  not  stop." 

338 


BATTLE    OF    AMOAFUL 

break  on  January  31,  1874,  all  ranks  feeling  they  had  a 
tough  job  before  them  that  day.  I  was  convinced  we 
should  be  attacked  in  flank  and  rear  by  the  enemy,  as  their 
immense  superiority  in  numbers  would  enable  them  to  carry 
out  to  the  fullest  extent  their  favourite  tactics  of  surrounding 
the  army  opposed  to  them,  and  my  force  was  too  small  to 
prevent  it.  I  determined  therefore  to  advance  in  what  I  may 
describe  as  a  large  open  square  formation,  each  side  having 
its  own  selected  commander.  The  position  to  be  occupied 
by  each  battalion  was  carefully  explained  to  each  command- 
ing officer.  The  front  fighting  line  was  to  be  between  six 
and  seven  hundred  yards  in  width,  its  centre  being  marked 
by  Rait's  guns  on  or  near  the  Koomassee  road.  The  rockets 
were  to  be  at  the  front  angles  of  the  parallelogram.  The 
troops  on  the  side  faces  were  to  cut  paths  as  they  pushed 
forward  through  the  underscrub  each  at  a  distance  of  about 
three  hundred  yards  from  the  road.  My  force  was  too  small 
to  enable  me  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  getting  all  round  us, 
and  he  had  also  the  great  advantage  of  being  able  to  move 
easily  through  the  dense  forest  where  we  could  only  pass  by 
cutting  paths,  a  slow,  difficult  and  dangerous  operation.  It 
is  only  very  brave  and  highly  disciplined  troops  having  great 
confidence  in  one  another  who  could  be  trusted  to  fight  such 
an  enemy  under  these  conditions.  In  the  semi-darkness  of 
those  jungle  recesses,  the  nerves  are  tried  by  the  feeling 
that  you  are  more  or  less  cut  off  from  any  immediate  support, 
and  by  hearing  the  triumphant  shouts  of  a  barbarous, 
inhuman  enemy  on  all  sides.  But  I  knew  my  men  :  I  had 
tried  them  and  had  no  hesitation  in  trusting  them. 

In  early  youth  I  had  fought  through  the  beautiful  jungles  of 
Burmah,  where  a  luxuriant  undergrowth  afforded  the  enemy 
good  cover.     I  recaU  their  bright  cheerfulness  with  pleasure, 

339 


THE    STORY    OF   A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

for  (when  I  had  enough  to  eat)  I  thoroughly  enjoyed  cam- 
paigning in  them.  There  was  nothing  weird  or  mysterious 
in  their  thickest  recesses,  and  the  sun's  bright  rays  pierced 
through  them  everywhere.  But  here,  in  the  gloomy  shade  of 
this  mighty,  solemn  Ashantee  forest,  how  different !  How 
sobering  to  the  highest  spirits  was  its  dim,  shadowless  gloom. 
Rank  earth-smelling  dampness  pervaded  it,  and  soft  slimy 
depressions  in  the  ground,  whence  oozed  black,  oily  mud, 
marked  the  course  of  what  were  streams  at  times.  It  seemed 
indeed,  that  "  brooding  darkness  spread  his  jealous  wings  " 
to  protect  those  "  ebon  shades  "  from  the  invader.  If  there 
be  gnomes  on  earth  who  guard  the  dark  recesses  of  nature, 
surely  they  must  haunt  these  fever-breeding  forests  of 
Ashantee. 

Two  miles  along  a  bad  path  took  me  to  the  few  little  huts 
which  constituted  the  village  of  Quarman.  The  day's  work 
began  about  9  a.m.  with  some  desultory  firing  in  the  vicinity 
of  a  small  village  called  Eganasee,  a  couple  of  miles  beyond 
Quarman.  Lord  Gifford  with  his  scouts  drove  the  enemy 
out  with  little  difficulty,  but  sent  back  to  say  the  Ashantees 
were  in  considerable  force  beyond  the  village.  In  cutting 
the  paths  for  the  side  faces  of  the  square  poor  Captain  Buckle 
of  the  Royal  Engineers  was  killed  early  in  the  day.  He  was 
a  skilful  soldier,  a  brave,  determined  and  daring  gentleman. 

As  soon  as  we  began  to  move  forward,  it  became  apparent 
that  the  enemy  meant  to  make  a  determined  resistance. 
They  evidently  trusted  in  their  great  numerical  superiority 
which  enabled  them  to  surround  us,  in  the  strength  of  their 
forest  position  and  in  their  well-known  fighting  reputation. 
They  all  knew  that  their  grandfathers  had  utterly  destroyed 
Sir  Charles  MacCarthy's  army  in  British  territory,  and  if 
they  reasoned  at  all,  they  must  have  felt  how  much  easier  it 

340 


HARD    PRESSED    IN    FRONT 

would  be  to  cut  to  pieces  this  new  army  that  had  dared  to 
cross  the  sacred  Prah,  to  penetrate  into  the  interior  of  their 
country,  and  even  to  approach  their  fetish-guarded  capital  ! 

The  fight  soon  raged  loudly  on  all  sides.  It  was  curious 
sensation  that  of  being  fired  into  upon  four  faces  of  our  big 
square  by  a  howling  mass  of  many,  many  thousands  of 
savages,  determined  to  kill  us  or  to  die  in  the  attempt,  and 
yet  to  be  unable  to  see  them  in  the  dense  bush  beneath  that 
awe-inspiring  forest.  Those  who  have  fought  only  in  the 
open  can  barely  realize  how  unpleasant  is  such  a  position 
to  the  nerves  of  most  men.  The  roar  of  musketry  on  all 
sides  soon  became  deafening,  and  the  smoke  of  the  bad 
Ashantee  powder  hung  heavily  round  us,  there  being  no 
breath  of  wind  in  that  thick  forest  to  carry  it  away.  Rait's 
guns  were  hard  at  work,  and  the  loud  hissing  sound  of  the 
rockets  as  they  rushed  through  the  lower  bush,  striking  trees 
and  bursting  among  the  enemy — as  we  aU  hoped — added  to 
the  interest  and  excitement  of  this  strange  and  novel  scene. 

Reports  from  aU  quarters  came  in  rapidly  teUing  the  same 
story  :  "  many  wounded,"  "  hard  pressed,"  "  would  like 
some  support."  From  the  rear  came  the  news  that  our 
baggage  had  been  attacked  and  the  carriers  had  bolted. 
The  Brigadier  commanding  the  front  face  of  the  square  sub- 
sequently described  the  situation  between  9  a.m.  and  10  a.m. 
as  being  "  in  the  midst  of  a  semi-circle  of  hostile  fire,  and  we 
hardly  ever  caught  sight  of  a  man.  As  company  after  com- 
pany of  the  Forty-second  descended,with  their  pipes  playing, 
into  the  ravine,  they  were  almost  immediately  lost  sight  of  in 
the  bush  ;  and  their  position  could  only  be  judged  of  from  the 
sharp  crack  of  their  rifles  in  contradistinction  to  the  loud, 
dull  roar  of  the  Ashantee  musketry."  It  is  not  so  easy  as 
some  may  think  to  smile,  look  happy  and  thoroughly  satisfied 

341 


THE   STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

as  you  peruse  such  reports  amidst  the  booming  of  guns  and  a 
roar  of  small  arms.  I  was  in  front  of  the  native  houses  that 
constituted  the  village  of  Quarman,  and  as  I  walked  up  and 
down  smoking  cigar  after  cigar  I  felt  that  all  neighbouring 
eyes  were  upon  me.  It  was  a  curious  sensation,  especially 
when  the  enemy  pressing  in  on  the  flanks  pushed  our  men 
back  at  times.  Not  twenty  yards  off  were  several  newspaper 
correspondents.  One,  Mr.  Winwood  Reid,  a  very  cool  and 
daring  man,  had  gone  forward  with  the  fighting  line.  Of 
the  others  one  soon  attracted  my  attention  by  his  remark- 
able coolness.  It  was  Sir  Henry  Stanley,  the  famous  tra- 
veller. A  thoroughly  good  man,  no  noise,  no  danger  ruffled 
his  nerve,  and  he  looked  as  cool  and  self-possessed  as  if  he  had 
been  at  "  target  practice."  Time  after  time  as  I  turned  in 
his  direction  I  saw  him  go  down  to  a  kneeling  position  to 
steady  his  rifle  as  he  plied  the  most  daring  of  the  enemy  with 
a  never-failing  aim.  It  is  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  and  I  can 
still  see  before  me  the  close-shut  lips  and  determined  expres- 
sion of  his  manly  face  which — when  he  looked  in  my  direc- 
tion— told  plainly  I  had  near  me  an  Englishman  in  plain 
clothes  whom  no  danger  could  appal.  Had  I  felt  inclined  to 
run  away,  the  cool,  firm,  unflinching  manliness  of  that  face 
would  have  given  me  fresh  courage.  I  had  been  previously 
somewhat  prejudiced  by  others  against  him,  but  all  such 
feelings  were  slain  and  buried  at  Amoaful.  Ever  since  I 
have  been  proud  to  reckon  him  amongst  the  bravest  of  my 
comrades,  and  I  hope  he  may  not  be  offended  if  I  add 
amongst  my  best  friends  also. 

One  of  those  near  me,  of  whose  nerves  the  other  corre- 
spondents had  no  high  opinion,  gimleted  me  with  his  eyes  as 
I  walked  backwards  and  forwards  in  a  "  quarter-deck  " 
fashion.     I  smoked,  tried  to  look  "  jolly,"  and  even  whistled 

342 


A    NERVOUS    CORRESPONDENT 

a  tune  at  times  to  inspire  confidence.  But  whatever  I  did, 
or  wherever  I  turned,  those  unhappy-looking  eyes  followed 
me  wistfully,  and  with  a  look  that  seemed  to  express,  "  I 
wonder  when  he  is  going  to  run  away."  This  amused  and 
soothed  me,  for  I  was  somewhat  over-wrought  that  day.  The 
enemy's  fire  was  very  heavy  at  times,  but  fortunately  for  all 
of  us,  they  did  not  use  bullets,  and  their  slugs,  unless  fired 
near  you  did  not  penetrate  far.  Some  even  failed  to  pierce 
the  skin,  but  merely  tore  your  clothing,  and  if  the  blow  was 
not  in  a  bad  place  it  simply  knocked  you  out  of  time  for  a 
few  minutes.  Indeed,  many  of  us  were  hit  hard  several 
times  by  them  during  the  course  of  the  day  without  suffering 
serious  harm. 

For  a  long  time  little  progress  was  made,  although  most  of 
my  reserves  were  already  in  action.  But  the  awe  of  fighting 
in  the  darkness  of  a  forest  where  the  sun's  rays  never  pene- 
trated wore  off  by  degrees,  and  we  began  to  make  progress 
slowly  but  surely  in  the  di  ection  of  Amoaful  village.  It 
was  only  about  two  miles  ahead,  on  the  Koomassee  road. 

Rait's  guns  — constantly  in  action — were  often  not  more 
than  a  hundred,  and  at  times  not  more  than  fifty  yards  from 
crowds  of  the  enemy  who,  however,  clung  closely  to  the  bush. 

The  enemy  fought  well  under  the  terrific  fire  we  pou  ed 
into  them,  and  had  they  been  armed  with  Snider  rifles  we 
must  have  been  destroyed.  As  they  fell  back,  bit  by  bit,  the 
spirits  of  our  men  rose,  and  a  British  cheer  at  times  told  one 
things  were  looking  brighter  all  round.  The  numerous 
messages  which  all  through  the  morning  kept  coming  in  from 
every  direction  were  no  longer  mere  appeals  for  reinfor  e- 
ments  :  they  were  more  confident  in  tone.  As  the  booming 
of  the  enemy's  heavily  charged  muskets  grew  fainter,  our 
ranks  pressed  forward  more  eagerly. 

343 


THE   STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

More  than  once  the  enemy  pressed  in  heavily  upon  the 
village  clearance  where  I  was.  But  I  would  not  allow  the 
houses  to  be  loopholed  lest  such  a  defensive  precaution  might 
cause  any  weak-hearted  men  to  doubt,  even  for  a  moment, 
that  success,  complete  success  was  not  a  certainty.  Such 
little  points  are  often  of  consequence,  and,  as  it  were  intui- 
tively, I  at  once  felt  the  importance  of  this  matter.  Once  the 
enemy  nearly  broke  through  into  the  clearance,  for  some  com- 
panies of  the  battahon  that  faced  the  enemy  there  fell  back. 
They  were  badly  led,  badly  commanded,  and  the  affair  looked 
ugly  for  a  moment :  but  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  I  saw 
Commodore  Hewett,  who  was  near  the  spot,  rush  to  the  front 
and  sword  in  hand  lead  them  back  into  the  bush,  driving  the 
Ashantee  assailants  before  him.  He  was  indeed  a  man  to  be 
rehed  on  in  any  emergency,  whether  by  land  or  sea  !  I  had 
met  him  often  in  the  batteries  before  Sebastopol  when  we 
were  both  very  young,  and  where  he  established  a  great  repu- 
tation for  that  glorious  daring  which  was  part  and  parcel  of 
the  man.  He  was  just  the  commander  for  such  a  momentary 
crisis,  and  aU  ranks  seemed  to  recognize  the  fact,  for  in  an 
instant  they  were  inspired  by  his  splendid  example  and 
followed  him  as  if  he  had  long  been  their  appointed  leader. 

The  front  line  was  commanded  by  Brigadier-General  Sir 
A.  Alison,  whose  objective  was  the  village  of  Amoaful.  It 
was  taken  at  noon  by  a  weU-directed  charge  of  the  Black 
Watch,  and  I  was  glad  to  learn  at  the  same  time  that  it  was 
large  enough  to  afford  cover  for  my  little  army  with  all  its 
wounded. 

Desultory  fighting  continued  at  several  points  until  about 
2  p.m.  At  three  o'clock  I  heard  from  Major  CoUey,  whom  I 
had  sent  back  to  bring  up  the  regimental  baggage  from 
In-sarfu  that  the  enemy  had  seriously  attacked  Quarman, 

344 


SIR    GEORGE    COLLEY 

which  was  about  half  way  to  the  former  place.  He  drove 
them  off,  and  proceeded  on  to  Insarfu,  where  he  picked  up  a 
large  convoy  of  ammunition  and  provisions  which  covered 
about  five  miles  of  road.  Upon  his  return  journey,  having 
this  great  convoy  with  him,  upon  again  reaching  Quarman  he 
found  the  enemy  making  a  fresh  attack  upon  it,  and  it  took 
some  hard  fighting  to  finally  dispose  of  them.  It  was  mid- 
night before  he  rejoined  me  in  the  village  of  Amoaful.  He 
had  indeed  had  a  hard  day's  work.  But  he  was  a  man  in  a 
thousand,  with  an  iron  wiU  and  of  inflexible  determination, 
who  would  always  work  as  long  as  there  was  still  anything 
important  to  be  done.  And  that  day  no  man's  work  was 
more  important.  He  had  been  about  nineteen  hours  con- 
stantly employed  before  he  lay  down  to  have  some  sleep. 


345 


CHAPTER  XLIX 
The  Enemy  attack    our   Line  of  Communications 

I  DETERMINED  to  place  Amoaful  in  a  state  of  defence, 
and,  leaving  all  my  impedimenta  there,  to  advance 
upon  Koomassee,  every  man  carrying  two  days'  provi- 
sions on  his  person.  Rations  for  two  more  days  were  to 
be  carried  by  the  spare  hammock  men  of  the  regimental 
transport,  and  a  fifth  day's  supply  by  the  army  transport. 
I  calculated,  that  with  these  five  days'  rations,  we  should 
be  able  to  fight  once  more  and  to  take  possession  of 
King  Koffee's  capital,  which  was  then  only  about  fifteen 
miles  off.  It  was  fairly  certain  we  should  have  this 
one  more  heavy  stand-up  fight  before  we  obtained 
possession  of  Koomassee.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  had  to 
fight  two  serious  engagements  before  it  became  ours.  But 
whatever  might  be  the  nature  or  number  of  them,  my  hope 
was,  they  would  lead  to  a  peace.  If,  however,  the  King 
refused  to  yield,  my  intention  was  to  raze  his  palace  to  the 
ground,  to  bum  his  city,  and  then  fall  back  behind  the 
Prah  without  delay.  I  expected  this  destruction  of 
Koomassee  would  teach  him  that  he  could  no  longer  reckon 
upon  the  protection  afforded  by  his  fever-stricken  forests 
and  by  the  courage  of  his  soldiers,  to  keep  us  out  of  his 
dominions.  This  led  me  to  hope  that  he  would  therefore 
be  only  too  glad  to  make  peace  upon  my  terms.  It  is  not, 
however,  safe  to  reckon  from  European  analogy  what  will 

346 


HARD    FIGHTING    AT    FOMMANAH 

be  the  conduct  of  any  African  despot.  The  influences  which 
act  upon  the  educated  man  have  Httle  or  no  effect  upon 
the  savage  of  Equatorial  Africa.  And  fortunate  for  England 
that  it  was  so  in  this  instance,  for  his  refusal  to  accept 
my  terms  led  to  the  destruction  of  the  only  dangerously 
strong  native  power  in  Western  Africa,  and  consequently 
to  the  maintenance  of  peace  in  that  deadly  portion  of  our 
Empire. 

My  little  army  started  from  Amoaful  at  daybreak  on  Feb- 
ruary 2.  We  had  no  serious  fighting  throughout  this  day's 
march,  though  the  advanced  guard  had  much  skirmishing  at 
many  points  along  the  road.  Our  casualties  were  only  three 
officers  wounded  and  a  few  of  other  ranks  killed  and 
wounded.  The  village  of  Adwabin,  where  the  advanced 
party  of  the  advanced  guard  halted  for  the  night,  was  not 
more  than  about  three  miles  from  the  Ordah  River,  and 
perhaps  a  little  under  twelve  miles  from  Koomassee.  The 
advanced  guard  itself  halted  at  Aggemmamu,  where  it  was 
joined  by  the  main  body. 

There  had  been  some  hard  fighting  this  day  along  our  Une 
of  communications.  The  enemy  had  made  a  determined 
attack  upon  Fommanah,  at  which  place  Colonel  Colley 
arrived  in  the  nick  of  time  and  assumed  command.  He  had 
some  difficulty  in  saving  the  hospital  and  storehouses,  and 
the  carriers  were  so  panic-stricken  by  the  heavy  firing  and  the 
numbers  wounded,  that  they  could  not  be  induced  to  leave 
with  provisions  for  the  front. 

This  was  serious,  for  I  now  had  only  four  days'  supplies 
with  the  fighting  force  at  Aggemmamu,  but  having  appealed 
to  the  men  to  make  those  rations  last  for  five  days  they 
responded  most  cheerfully  to  my  request.  Colonel  Colley 
also  undertook  that  I  should  have  a  fresh  convoy  of  pro- 

347 


THE    STORY  OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

visions  at  that  village  in  five  days,  and  I  knew  that  I  could 
rely  upon  his  promises. 

This  arrangement  greatly  freed  my  fighting  force,  when 
in  action,  from  having  to  make  detachments  for  the  pro- 
tection of  provision  columns.  In  several  ways  it  helped 
me  for  this  final  dash  upon  Koomassee,  where  I  had  never 
contemplated  staying  more  than  two,  or,  at  the  outside, 
more  than  three  or  four  days, 

Aggemmamu,  where  the  main  body  halted  for  the  night 
of  February  2,  was  an  important  post,  as  two  roads  led 
thence  to  Koomassee.  I  selected  the  western  and  longer 
road  because  I  understood  it  was  the  better  and  more  im- 
portant of  the  two.  I  had  the  village  strongly  entrenched 
for  the  small  garrison  I  intended  to  leave  in  it.  I  could 
not  afford  more,  but  as  the  enemy  had  no  artillery,  I  was 
able  to  take  liberties  in  this  respect  which  I  could  not  other- 
wise have  ventured  upon. 

On  February  3  we  moved  off  at  daybreak,  and  when  we 
reached  Adwabin,  where  my  advanced  guard  and  Lord 
Gifford's  scouts  had  spent  the  night,  I  pushed  them  for\vard 
under  Colonel  McLeod  for  the  River  Dah,  or  Ordah.  The 
enemy  surrounded  them  on  their  march,  and  whilst  stoutly 
opposing  their  advance  persistently  attacked  us  in  flank  ; 
but  they  no  longer  showed  any  desire  to  close  with  us :  the 
lesson  they  had  been  taught  at  Amoaful  had  made  them 
more  careful.  Upon  reaching  the  Ordah,  the  enemy  were 
found  holding  the  high  ground  on  the  northern  bank,  where 
the  well  built  village  of  Ordahsu,  about  2,000  yards  beyond 
the  river,  seemed  to  be  the  centre  of  their  position. 

Our  advanced  guard  was  soon  heavily  engaged,  the  enemy 
being  in  force.  All  the  prisoners  taken  during  the  day 
asserted  that  we  had  in  front  of  us  an  Ashantee  army  of 

348 


REACH    THE    ORDAH    RIVER 

10,000  warriors,  besides  considerable  bodies  operating  on 
our  flanks  and  rear.  A  little  before  noon,  when  the  main 
body  had  covered  about  three-quarters  of  the  distance  to 
the  river,  a  flag  of  truce,  with  a  letter  from  the  King,  reached 
me.  In  it  he  again  begged  me  to  halt,  and  promised  he 
would  consent  to  all  my  terms,  but  could  not,  he  said,  send 
me  his  old  mother  and  young  brother  as  hostages,  because 
both  were  "  his  counsellors  and  helpers  in  every  way." 
The  messengers  also  brought  me  a  letter  from  Mr.  Dawson, 
who  evidently  wrote  in  abject  terror  for  his  life,  entreating 
me  to  halt,  and  if  I  did  so  everything  I  asked  would  be 
conceded. 

I  knew  I  could  not  cross  the  Ordah,  fight  a  battle,  and 
get  into  Koomassee  that  evening,  so  although  it  was  quite 
evident  to  me  that  the  King  merely  wanted  to  gain  time  in 
order  to  coUect  his  army  and  to  help  it  to  recover  from  the 
effects  of  the  severe  defeat  it  had  experienced  at  Amoaful, 
I  felt  it  advisable  to  temporize.  Making,  therefore,  a  virtue 
of  necessity  I  consented  to  halt  for  the  night  on  the  river. 
Doing  so  would  enable  me  to  construct  a  bridge  over  it 
during  the  night,  by  which,  unless  he  had  in  the  meantime 
complied  with  my  terms,  I  meant  to  cross  at  daybreak  next 
morning.  A  very  few  minutes  only  were  required  to  write 
and  deliver  the  following  answer  to  the  royal  messengers — 

"  12.10  p.m.     February  3,  1874. 

"  On  the  March. 
"  King,— 

"  You  have  deceived  me  so  often  before  that  I  cannot 

halt  until  the  hostages  are  in  my  possession.     If  you  send 

them  to  me  this  evening  I  will  halt  my  army  this  side  of 

the  River  Ordah. 

"  As  time  presses,  I  wiU  consent  to  accept  for  to-day  your 

349 


THE    STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

mother  and  Prince  Mensah.     Both  shall  be  well  treated  by 
me.     You  can  trust  my  word.     Unless  you  send  them  at 
once,  my  army  shall  march  upon  Koomassee. 
(Signed)     "  G.  J.  Wolseley, 

"  Major-General." 

The  royal  messengers  started  at  once  with  my  answer,  and 
we  heard  them,  as  they  ran  back,  calling  to  their  troops  on 
both  sides  of  the  road  not  to  fire.  All  skirmishing  then  ceased. 
I  reached  the  Ordah  about  3  p.m.,  and  found  it  was  a  for- 
midable stream  of  about  twenty  yards  in  width,  Russell's 
Regiment  was  at  once  pushed  across  to  construct  a  rough 
entrenchment  and  to  cover  the  party  who  were  to  be  em- 
ployed during  the  night  in  making  a  bridge.  The  night 
was  one  of  violent  tornadoes  and  of  rain  in  torrents  ;  I 
never  was  out  under  heavier.  It  did  not,  however, 
prevent  Captain  Home  and  his  Royal  Engineers  from  work- 
ing at  the  bridge  throughout  those  long  hours  of  pitchy 
darkness.  No  men  ever  worked  harder  or  to  better  purpose, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  remarkable  officer 
than  Captain  Home,  of  whose  character  and  abilities  I  have 
already  said  much. 

It  was  an  awful  night,  and  the  rain  fell  upon  us  like  sheets 
of  water.  We  had  no  tents  or  cover  of  any  sort,  and  the 
blinding  lightning  added  to  our  misery.  I  never  spent  a 
more  wretched  time  in  any  bivouac.  No  fire  would  bum, 
and  the  ground  was  a  soaking  mass  of  mud,  where  few 
could  find  any  sleep  at  all.  Curiously  enough,  this  was  the 
first  serious  downpour  of  tropical  rain  we  had  experienced 
since  we  crossed  the  Prah.  It  was  a  source  of  great  misery 
to  every  one,  coming  as  it  did  so  inopportunely  the  very 
night  before  we  hoped  to  take  Koomassee.     Instead  of  being 

350 


CONSTRUCT  BRIDGE  OVER  ORDAH 

thankful  for  the  fine  weather  we  had  had  throughout  the 
campaign,  misery  made  us  ungratefully  forget  it,  and  we 
grumbled  loudly  because  this  one  night  of  wretchedness 
had  been  dealt  out  to  us  from  Dame  Fortune's  cheating 
pack  of  cards. 

It  seemed  to  be  a  very  long  night.  But  even  the  longest 
comes  to  an  end,  and  daylight  on  February  4  found  me  at 
the  bridge  to  see  what  progress  had  been  made  with  it  during 
that  night  of  horrors.  It  was  already  passable,  and  nearly 
finished.  The  sappers — all  round  the  handiest  men  we 
have  by  land  or  sea — had  worked  all  through  that  dreadful 
night  to  good  purpose.  I  congratulated  Captain  Home 
and  his  men  in  the  most  flattering  terms  I  could  use  ;  indeed, 
no  praise  could  be  too  high  for  him  and  them. 

My  plan  for  the  day  was  to  pass  the  bridge  at  once  with 
all  the  troops  I  had  there,  and  to  take  the  village  of  Ordahsu. 
Having  taken  it,  to  form  a  double  line  outwards  from  the 
road,  and  under  its  protection  send  on  all  the  reserve  ammu- 
nition, stores,  food,  wounded,  etc.,  etc.,  into  the  village, 
which  I  would  then  make  as  strong  as  possible.  Having 
thus  collected  all  my  impedimenta  in  Ordahsu  under  a 
sufficient  guard,  I  meant  to  push  boldly  forward  into 
Koomassie  and  seize  it ;  to  make  peace  if  I  could,  but  should 
King  Koffee  prove  recalcitrant,  to  blow  up  his  palace,  bum 
that  great  charnel  house,  the  city  itself,  and  forthwith  quit 
the  country.  Heavy  rains  were  to  be  expected  at  any  early 
date,  and  I  felt  that  to  keep  British  troops  in  that  fatal 
climate  a  day  longer  than  was  absolutely  necessary  would 
be  criminal. 

From  the  prisoners  taken  by  our  outposts  during  the 
night,  I  learnt  that  the  whole  Ashantee  army  was  out  to 
oppose  me,  most  of  it  being  then  in  my  immediate  front. 

351 


THE    STORY     OF    A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

I  gave  the  King  two  hours  of  morning  dayHght  to  enable 
him  to  comply  with  my  terms  if  he  meant  to  do  it.  I  did 
not  expect  he  would,  and  I  did  so  chiefly  because  my  whole 
force  was  drenched  with  rain  and  cold  with  hunger.  This 
short  halt  enabled  them  to  light  fires,  dry  their  clothes,  and 
have  some  hot  tea  and  breakfast. 

When  we  advanced  across  the  river,  about  6.30  a.m.,  we 
soon  found  ourselves  in  front  of  a  force  which  was  certainly 
as  large  as  we  had  been  told  to  expect.  Everything  con- 
sidered, the  distance  from  all  effective  help,  the  small  amount 
of  supplies  we  had  to  depend  upon,  the  extreme  unhealthi- 
ness  of  the  climate,  the  courage  and  ferocity  of  the  enemy, 
all  combined  to  make  the  position  of  the  general  ofhcer 
responsible  for  the  safety  of  this  little  army  somewhat  trying. 
But  I  was  vain  enough  to  believe  in  my  own  judgment,  and 
my  confidence  in  the  carefully  chosen  officers  about  me 
and  in  the  rank  and  file  was  unlimited. 

After  the  miserable  night  we  had  passed,  we  were  not  so 
early  in  the  field  this  day  as  usual.  But  the  sun,  with  its 
genial  warmth  and  brightness  in  the  morning  hours  of  even 
a  tropical  day  soon  gladdens  the  bivouac.  The  soldier's 
memory  is  short,  and  the  enjoyment  of  to-day  soon  blurs 
out  for  us  all  the  disagreeable  recollections  of  yesterday. 

At  about  7  a.m.  the  serious  work  of  that  eventful  day 
began.  To  my  intense  annoyance  I  soon  found  that  the 
general  position  of  affairs,  the  knowledge  that  the  great  and 
famous  Ashantee  army,  under  its  King,  was  in  front  of,  and 
indeed,  all  round  us,  seemed  now  for  the  first  time  to  seriously 
affect  my  native  troops.  A  company  of  Wood's  Native 
Regiment  was  the  advanced  party  of  the  advanced  guard,  and 
the  heavy  fire  from  the  enemy  soon  became  too  much  for  them. 
They  lay  down,  firing    recklessly  at  nothing  and  became 

352 


DEATH    OF    GALLANT    YOUNG    EYRE 

entirely  "  out  of  hand."  The  Rifle  Brigade  took  their  place 
at  the  head  of  the  column,  and  one  of  Rait's  guns  was  brought 
effectively  into  action.  Loud  cheers  and  great  beating  of 
war  drums  on  our  right  warned  us  of  what  was  evidently  a 
large  force  of  the  enemy  in  that  direction.  This  noise  was 
soon  followed  by  a  heavy  fire,  from  which  we  suffered.  It 
ended  the  days  of  a  gallant  spirit.  Young  Eyre,  of  the 
90th  Light  Infantry,  was  the  only  son  of  General  Sir  WiUiam 
Eyre,  who,  famous  for  his  daring  courage,  had  distinguished 
himself  before  Sebastopol.  I  helped  to  bury  the  boy  there 
and  then,  where  he  fell,  whilst  friends  and  foes  together  fired 
voUeys  at  the  moment,  as  if  to  honour  the  gallant  spirit  that 
had  left  us.  As  we  scraped  some  rubbish  over  his  grave  to 
conceal  the  spot,  I  thought  of  his  widowed  mother  waiting 
anxiously  at  home  for  the  return  of  her  only  boy,  whose 
still  warm  body  we  thus  buried  under  fire,  and  whom  she 
was  never  to  see  again  in  this  world.  Through  death  man 
wins  eternal  life,  and  it  is  by  the  deeds  of  men  like  gallant 
Eyre,  who  have  given  their  Lives  in  action  for  England  aU 
round  the  globe,  that  our  great  empire  has  arisen  and  been 
created. 

At  9  a.m.,  after  about  two  unpleasant  hours  of  hard  fight- 
ing and  slow  progress,  the  village  of  Ordahsu  was  in  our 
possession,  though  the  enemy,  defiant  as  ever,  still  surrounded 
it  on  three  sides.  AU  our  reserve  stores  of  every  nature 
were  now  quickly  and  safely  passed  through  the  double  line 
of  troops  I  had  formed  between  the  river  and  the  village. 
The  enemy  held  in  force  some  ravines  which  came  down 
from  the  upper  level  to  the  river,  and  from  them  they  made 
fierce  onslaughts  upon  what  I  may  call  my  "  covered  way  " 
between  the  bridge  and  the  village.  Regarding  this  and 
subsequent  events  throughout  the  day,  I  find  it  noted  in 

VOL.  II.  353  A  A 


THE   STORY   OF   A  SOLDIER'S   LIFE 

my  private  journal  that  although  the  enemy  were  more 
numerous  than  at  Amoaful,  and  stoutly  strove  to  bar  our 
road,  they  did  not  seem  to  fight  with  the  spirit  or  assurance 
they  had  displayed  on  the  previous  occasion. 

About  II  a.m.  a  most  determined  effort  to  retake  Ordahsu 
was  made  by  the  enemy  from  the  north,  east,  and  west, 
whilst  they  strove  to  break  into  my  covered  way  to  the 
south,  along  which  the  reserve  stores  were  still  then  being 
sent  into  the  village  with  aU  haste.  The  brigadier  reported 
that  he  wanted  help  in  Ordahsu,  but  there  was  no  use  in 
sending  him  native  troops,  as  he  said  he  could  do  nothing 
with  them  under  such  a  fire.  A  little  after  ii  a.m.  I  trans- 
ferred my  headquarters  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
bridge  to  the  village.  For  an  hour  after  I  had  entered  it 
the  place  was  a  regular  "  inferno."  Rait's  guns  in  action, 
a  deafening  roar  of  musketry  on  all  sides,  and  the  loud  bang- 
ing of  many  thousands  of  the  enemy's  muskets,  fired  as  fast 
as  they  could  load  them,  aU  round  the  outside  of  the  place. 

The  enemy  now  and  then  pressed  in  close  to  us  with  loud 
shouts  and  war  cries,  but  steady  volleys  from  our  deadly 
Sniders  stopped  and  silenced  them.  So  near  did  they  come 
at  one  moment  that  Colonel  Greaves,  my  chief  of  the  staff, 
emptied  his  revolver  amongst  them. 

For  some  time  it  may  be  said  to  have  rained  slugs  upon 
us,  and  few  escaped  being  hurt  by  them.  By  noon,  however, 
I  had  all  my  stores  well  stacked  in  the  village,  which  by  this 
time  had  been  placed  in  a  state  of  defence.  We  were  still 
over  six  miles  from  Koomassee,  so  I  felt  the  time  had  come 
for  my  final  advance  upon  it. 

For  the  honour  of  breaking  through  the  masses  of  the 
enemy  that  crowded  the  road  leading  to  King  Koffee's 
capital,  I  selected  my  best  battalion,  the  Black  Watch.     No 

354 


RAIT'S    GUNS    IN    ACTION 

finer  body  of  men,  with  more  gallant  officers,  or  under  a 
better  or  more  determined  leader  than  Colonel  McLeod,  were 
ever  sent  upon  such  a  mission.  Rait's  guns  raked  the  road 
with  a  heavy  shell  fire,  whilst  volley  after  volley  of  musketry 
must  have  slain  hundreds,  and  thus  helped  to  open  a 
path  for  these  splendid  Highlanders.  The  orders  I  gave 
Colonel  McLeod  were  to  disregard  all  flank  attacks  as  much 
as  possible,  and  to  push  forward  straight  for  Koomassee. 
I  would  support  him  by  every  man  I  had  who  was  not 
absolutely  required  for  the  defence  of  Ordahsu  and  of  the 
stores  collected  there,  upon  which  indeed  our  lives  depended. 

It  was  inspiring  to  see  this  distinguished  Scottish  gentle- 
man sally  suddenly  forth  from  the  village  at  the  head  of 
his  historic  Highlanders,  their  pipes  playing  the  old  warlike 
music  of  Scotland,  all  ranks  knowing  full  well  that  come 
what  might  they  must  sleep  that  night  at  Koomassee  or  die 
on  the  road  to  it.  Of  ambuscades  many  were  encountered 
and  each  taken  with  a  rush  ;  for  what  were  such  obstacles 
to  men  like  those  of  the  Black  Watch  !  They  were  for  the 
first  moment  as  they  pushed  forward  from  Ordahsu,  met 
with  a  terrific  fire  :  many  fell  wounded,  but  nothing  could 
stop  them.  The  Ashantees  seemed  at  last  to  realize  this, 
for  the  shouting  in  front  ceased  for  a  moment  as  they  fled 
in  all  directions  in  wild  confusion.  A  short  halt  was  made 
when  half  way  to  the  city,  for  the  men  were  blown,  hungry, 
and  tired. 

Brigadier-General  Sir  Archibald  Alison  and  his  staff 
accompanied  this  advance,  and  were  with  the  first  that 
entered  Koomassee,  that  terrible  city  whose  streets  had 
at  all  times  reeked  with  the  blood  of  human  sacrifices. 

Whilst  this  advance  was  proceeding  I  withdrew  all  the 
troops  between  our  bridge  and  Ordahsu  into  that  village. 

355 


THE  STORY  OF  A  SOLDIER'S  LIFE 

The  enemy  at  once  in  a  howl  of  deHght  swarmed  along  our 
rear,  and  feeling  we  were  thus  cut  off  from  everybody  and 
every  post  in  rear  of  us,  set  up  a  shout  of  triumph.  They 
swarmed  over  the  ground  where  we  had  bivouacked  the 
previous  night,  expecting,  I  suppose,  to  find  loot  and  stores 
there. 

A  little  before  2  p.m.,  whUst  the  enemy  were  engaged  in 
a  renewed  attack  upon  Ordahsu,  I  received  a  message  from 
Sir  A.  Alison,  written  at  i.iop.m.,to  say  that  the  village  of 
Karsi  then  alone  remained  untaken  between  Ordahsu  and 
Koomassee.  I  had  the  message  communicated  to  our 
soldiers  and  translated  to  the  natives,  all  of  whom,  as  it 
were  with  one  accord,  cheered  vociferously.  The  enemy 
seemed  at  once  to  interpret  this  cheering  as  meaning  that 
we  had  won  a  victory.  It  had  the  most  astonishing  effect 
upon  them,  for  their  fire  ceased  at  once.  The  natives  with 
us  who  spoke  Ashantee  shouted  out  defiance  to  our  enemies, 
who  thereupon  ceased  to  trouble  us  further. 

The  moment  had  now  come,  I  felt,  for  a  rapid  advance 
upon  Koomassee,  and  with  aU  available  fighting  men. 
Leaving  a  sufficient  garrison  in  Ordahsu  to  hold  it,  and  taking 
the  Rifle  Brigade  with  me,  I  pushed  on  with  all  speed  for 
the  capital.  A  rear  guard,  under  Lieut.-Colonel  Wood,  V.C, 
consisting  of  Russell's  and  Wood's  Regiment  and  the  Naval 
Brigade,  was  to  follow  with  the  wounded,  the  hospital,  and 
other  impedimenta. 

I  despatched  orders  to  Sir  Archibald  Ahson  directing  him 
to  push  on  to  Koomassee  with  aU  speed.  I  arrived  there 
myself  at  6.15  p.m.,  nearly  as  soon  as  he  did.  The  whole 
road  from  Ordahsu  was  strewn  with  abandoned  war-trap- 
pings. The  numbers  of  state  umbrellas,  of  royal  Htters, 
drums  of  various  shapes  and  sizes,  were  evidences  of  the 

356 


THE    MISSIONARY    DAWSON 

hurry  and  confusion  of  bewildered  flight.  Just  before  I 
entered  the  city  Sir  A.  Alison  had  drawn  up  the  troops  on  a 
wide  open  place  in  the  city  where  he  received  me  with  a 
general  salute.  We  gave  three  ringing  cheers  for  the  Queen, 
which  made  the  hearts  of  all  still  lighter,  full  as  we  already 
were  of  joy  at  our  success.  All  ranks  felt  they  had  done 
a  brilliant  day's  work,  and  for  our  victory  I  am  sure 
many  fervent  thanks  went  up  to  God  that  night. 

We  found  the  half-caste  Mr.  Dawson  at  liberty.  He  had 
sent  me  several  written  but  cringing  and  un-English  mes- 
sages during  the  day  entreating  me  to  stop.  One  of  them, 
more  serious  than  the  others,  I  received  as  late  as  4.30  p.m. 
I  sent  my  answer  to  his  supplication  to  the  Brigadier  com- 
manding the  advanced  guard  :  it  was,  "  Push  on." 

From  Mr.  Dawson  I  learnt  that  the  King,  carried  in  a  lit- 
ter, had  been  present  on  the  main  road  somewhere  near  the 
front  during  the  opening  events  of  the  engagement.  But 
as  soon  as  our  bullets  began  to  "  hiss  "  close  to  him  he 
bolted,  and  all  his  immediate  followers  imitated  his  example. 
He  did  not  return  to  Koomassee,  and  no  one  could  or  would 
teU  where  he  had  gone.  His  mother  only  left  the  palace 
just  as  the  British  troops  were  about  to  enter  the  city. 

It  had  been  indeed  a  marvellous,  a  curious  day's  work, 
for  our  loss  was  trifling.  Although  the  numbers  surrounding 
us  were  greater  than  they  had  been  at  Amoaful,  the  enemy 
had  not  fought  with  the  same  determined  spirit  as  upon  that 
occasion.  They  had  this  day  expended  their  daring  in 
attacks  upon  our  flanks  and  rear,  where  our  men,  acting 
upon  the  defensive  and  under  partial  cover,  were  able  to 
mow  down  their  hordes  with  breechloaders  at  little  risk  to 
themselves.  Strange  to  say,  as  soon  as  we  burst  out  of 
Ordahsu  and  had  taken  the  road  to  Koomassee,  the  Ashantee 

357 


THE   STORY  OF   A  SOLDIER'S  LIFE 

army  collapsed  and  made  no  further  effort  to  oppose 
us. 

The  streets  of  Koomassee  presented  an  odd  appearance 
for  some  time  after  we  entered,  for  they  swarmed  with 
armed  Ashantees,  who  greeted  every  Englishman  they  met 
with  "  Thank  you,"  the  only  English  words  they  knew. 
I  gave  orders  they  should  be  treated  kindly  but  not  allowed 
to  enter  the  buildings  told  off  for  the  troops.  It  was  getting 
late,  so  we  had  not  much  time  to  settle  down  well  that  night 
in  our  new  quarters,  but  all  of  us  were  in  houses.  Big  fires 
blazed  in  front  of  these  temporary  barracks,  at  which  sat 
our  soldiers  and  sailors  discussing  the  day's  events  as  they 
satisfied  their  hunger  and  quaffed  hot  tea. 

Strict  orders  were  issued  against  looting,  but  they  were 
not  very  strictly  obej^ed  by  the  Fantee  carriers  or  by  those 
Fantees  whom  we  had  found  fastened  to  logs  when  we 
arrived. 

We  had  some  extensive  fires  in  the  city  that  night,  which 
I  attribute  to  the  carelessness  of  those  Fantee  pillagers. 
This  annoyed  me  much,  but  having  no  plans  of  the  place, 
and  as  it  was  a  very  dark  night,  I  could  do  nothing  to  prevent 
them  until  daybreak.  I  managed,  however,  to  send  a  mes- 
sage to  the  King,  offering  to  make  peace  and  warning  him  of 
the  consequences  unless  he  did  so.  The  house  I  occupied  as 
my  headquarters  was  not  very  uncomfortable,  and  was 
fairly  clean  inside  ;  it  had  a  very  high-pitched  roof  of 
thatch,  which,  however,  was  not  in  the  best  repair. 

I  had  issued  a  proclamation  that  men  caught  robbing 
would  be  hanged,  and  the  police  patrolled  the  city  all  through 
the  night.  One  of  our  own  Fantee  police  caught  in  the  act 
of  pillaging  was  hanged,  and  several  camp-followers  were 
flogged.     On  the  chance  of  being  able  to  treat  with  the  King, 

358 


IN    KOOMASSEE 

I  did  not  wish  him  to  think  that  I  had  wantonly  burnt  his 
capital. 

The  following  morning,  February  5,  1874,  I  issued  a 
general  order  thanking  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  all  ranks 
in  the  Queen's  name  for  their  gallant  services  and  their  good 
conduct. 

I  sent  off  all  my  sick  and  wounded  under  a  strong  escort 
bound  for  Cape  Coast  Castle  and  thence  for  home.  The 
sooner  I  could  get  the  poor  fellows  into  comfortable  quarters 
on  board  ship  the  better,  as  the  best  restorative  for  the  sick 
and  wounded  is  the  consciousness  that  each  succeeding  day 
finds  them  nearer  home, 

I  again  wrote  to  the  King  to  warn  him  that  I  would  destroy 
Koomassee  unless  he  at  once  made  a  treaty  upon  the  terms 
I  had  offered  him. 

During  the  day  we  had  another  downpour  of  very  heavy 
rain.  I  felt  the  King  would  make  no  satisfactory  peace 
and  that  to  stay  longer  on  the  chance  of  his  doing  so  would 
be  to  entail  fevers  and  death  upon  many  of  the  gallant  men 
round  me.  In  my  heart  I  believed  that  the  absolute  de- 
struction of  Koomassee  with  its  great  palace,  the  wonder  of 
Western  Africa,  would  be  a  much  more  striking  and  effective 
end  to  the  war  than  any  paper  treaty — no  matter  what 
might  be  its  provisions — that  I  might  possibly  obtain  from 
this  brutal  and  deceitful  monarch.  But  public  opinion  at 
home  would  have  loudly  condemned  me  had  I  had  recourse 
to  that  extreme  measure  until,  having  done  my  best  to  make 
terms  with  King  Koffee,  I  had  absolutely  failed  to  induce 
him  to  agree  to  a  treaty  of  a  nature  that  would  be  generally 
approved  of.  As  a  concession  to  what  I  believed  to  be 
the  drift  of  English  feeling,  I  had  done  my  best  to  induce 
this  Ashantee  savage  to  make  peace  on  reasonable  terms, 

359 


THE  STORY   OF  A  SOLDIER'S  LIFE 

and  in  doing  so  I  had  treated  him  as  if  he  were  a  rational 
being.  But  with  this  rainy  season  already  upon  us,  I  felt 
it  would  be  to  tempt  Providence  were  I  to  keep  my  soldiers 
any  longer  in  such  a  chamel  house  as  Koomassee. 

I  visited  the  royal  palace  and  was  surprised  to  find  it 
though  not  imposing  in  character  yet  well  laid  out,  clean 
and  fairly  well  kept.  Some  of  its  buildings  were  of  sub- 
stantial masonry,  and  most  of  it  was  solidly  constructed  and 
admirably  roofed  in.  Its  ornamentation,  without  and 
within,  was  decidedly  Moorish  in  style.  The  Ashantees  have 
long  had  much  intercourse  with  the  Mahometan  tribes 
further  north,  who  draw  their  prescribed  notions  of  civiliza- 
tion, of  learning,  and  of  art  from  Morocco.  Many  of  the 
amulets  worn  by  the  Ashantees  round  the  arm,  or  fastened 
to  a  necklace,  contain  verses  from  the  Koran  in  Persian 
characters.  At  our  prize  sale  in  Cape  Coast  Castle  I  had 
had  bought  for  me  a  curious  black  leather  hat  that  had  been 
worn  by  King  Koffee.  It  was  one  of  the  many  valuable  hats 
brought  away  by  the  prize  agents  from  the  royal  wardrobe. 
Around  it  are  many  talismans,  in  gold  and  silver  casing, 
each  of  which  contains  a  Mohammedan  precept. 

The  palace  abounded  with  curious  and  most  beautiful 
gold  ornaments  which  in  pattern  and  design  were  peculiar 
to  the  country.  AU  were  made  from  very  pure  gold  of  a 
deep  rich  and  reddish  yellow  that  I  have  never  seen  else- 
where. But  if  the  native  goldsmith's  skill  surprised  and 
interested  me  from  an  artistic  point  of  view  how  can  I 
describe  the  horrors  which  sickened  mind  and  body  in  the 
palace.  The  whole  locality  stank  from  the  human  blood 
with  which  it  may  be  said  the  ground  is  saturated.  I  have 
been  in  many  barbarous  lands  where  man's  life  is  held 
cheap,  but  here  alone  was  the  spot  where  men  made  in  the 

360 


PLACE    OF    EXECUTION 

image  of  their  Maker  were  butchered  daily  in  cold  blood  in 
hundreds  to  appease  the  manes  of  some  cruel  ancestor  or  in 
obedience  to  the  mandate  of  some  bloodthirsty  fetish 
priest.  There  was  a  grove  of  trees  hard  by  into  which  the 
murdered  bodies  were  always  thrown,  the  stench  from  which 
poisoned  the  surrounding  atmosphere.  Hating  all  horrors 
I  did  not  venture  into  it,  but  others  with  stronger  stomachs 
did  so,  and  their  descriptions  of  it  made  one  sick. 

Without  doubt  the  most  loathsome  object  my  eyes  have 
ever  rested  on  was  a  sacred  stool  saturated  with  human 
blood,  which  stood  near  the  place  of  execution,  and  which 
was  always  kept  wet  with  the  blood  of  victims.  Great  fresh 
clots  upon  it  showed  how  recently  some  poor  creature  had 
been  sacrificed  there.  Near  it  stood  the  huge  "  Death 
Drum,"  some  four  or  five  feet  in  diameter,  and  decorated 
round  its  outer  rim  with  human  skulls  and  thigh  bones. 

'  Koomassee  was  well  situated  on  rather  high  ground  rising 
from  the  deep  and  wide  swamps  that  encircle  it.  Its  streets 
were  wide  and  straight  and  it  contained  a  large  number  of 
fine,  weU  built,  well  kept  houses.  AU  were  of  but  one  story, 
with  floors  of  red  brick  raised  some  two  or  three  feet  above 
the  surrounding  level.  The  lower  part  of  the  outside  walls 
was  painted  in  yellow  ochre  and  decorated  with  an  arabesque 
pattern  of  a  reddish  brown  colour. 

For  Captains  Glover,  Butler  and  Dalrymple  I  felt  the 
deepest  sympathy.  All  three  had  done  everything  possible 
to  get  near  Koomassee  about  the  date  I  occupied  it. 

The  very  heavy  rain  that  feU  during  the  day  caused  me  to 
think  seriously  over  our  position,  so  far  away  from  my  base 
on  the  coast  and  in  a  country  where  provisions  for  the  white 
man  are  unobtainable.  The  rainy  season  had  set  in  earlier 
than  usual,  and  I  knew  how  flooded  the  river  Ordah  had 

361 


THE   STORY  OF   A   SOLDIER'S  LIFE 

already  become.  Many  of  the  swamps  we  had  crossed  with 
comparative  ease  in  the  fine  weather  during  our  advance 
would  soon  be  converted  by  such  equatorial  tornadoes  as 
that  we  had  just  had  into  impassable  quagmires.  I  could 
clearly  see  that  although  King  Koffee  was  thoroughly 
frightened  for  his  own  safety  and  for  the  maintenance  of  his 
kingdom,  he  was  not  to  be  easily  hurried  into  signing  any 
formal  treaty  of  peace.  He  must  naturally  have  felt  the 
extreme  danger  of  his  position.  He  knew  that  besides  my 
little  army  of  white  men  in  his  front  there  were  three  other 
forces  led  by  British  officers  in  the  field  against  him.  That 
of  Captain  Glover — about  2,000  natives  and  Houssas — 
at  Odumassee  on  the  Anoom  River  and  only  about  twenty- 
four  miles  east  of  Koomassee  ;  that  of  Captain  Butler,  who 
had  advanced  from  the  Prah  near  Amantea  by  a  road  about 
half  way  between  Captain  Glover's  line  of  march  and  that  of 
the  main  army  ;  and  lastly,  that  under  Captain  Dalrymple 
which  was  advancing  through  the  Wassah  country  by  a 
route  about  twelve  miles  westward  of  that  by  which  I  had 
marched  on  Koomassee.  This  great  array  of  nominally 
fighting  forces  must  have  impressed  King  Koffee  and  his 
counsellors,  although,  with  the  exception  of  the  Houssas 
with  Captain  Glover,  the  whole  lot  added  little  to  my 
effective  strength.  They  served,  however,  to  reduce  the 
hordes  of  armed  men  that  at  first  lay  between  me  and 
Koomassee. 

King  Koffee  was  evidently  at  his  wits'  end,  not  knowing 
what  to  do,  nor  where  to  turn  for  useful  advice.  Had  I 
felt  there  was  the  least  likelihood  of  being  able,  by 
staying  a  week  longer  at  Koomassee,  to  obtain  a  better 
treaty  I  would  not  have  quitted  it  on  February  6.  But  I 
felt  that  I  should  not  be  justified  in  condemning  my  soldiers 

362 


PRIZE    AGENTS 

to  the  risk  of  any  longer  stay  in  such  a  pestiferous  climate 
on  the  off  chance  that  it  might  enable  us  to  get  better  terms 
inserted  in  any  paper  treaty  King  Koffee  might  consent  to. 
I  consequently  determined  to  quit  that  horrible  city  of  blood 
the  following  morning.  I  named  prize  agents  to  collect 
all  the  gold  and  valuable  articles  they  could  during  the 
night,  and  ordered  the  commanding  Royal  Engineer  to  mine 
the  palace  and  make  arrangements  for  setting  fire  to  the 
city  in  several  places  to  ensure  its  total  destruction. 

We  had  a  succession  of  violent  tornadoes  during  the 
night  accompanied  with  sheets  of  rain  which  poured  in 
freely  through  the  roof  under  which  I  slept.  I  tried  to  keep 
myself  dry  under  an  umbrella,  but  failed  and  lost  my  rest 
in  the  effort. 

We  began  our  return  march  to  the  coast  at  7  a.m.  on  Feb- 
ruary 6.  The  road  was  in  a  pitiable  condition,  but  all  ranks 
were  too  full  of  delight  at  having  left  Koomassee  behind 
them,  with  all  its  foul  smells  and  loathsome  horrors,  to  think 
of  so  small  a  matter.  It  was  a  real  joy  to  feel  that  every 
step  took  us  nearer  home.  What  were  mud,  marshes,  heavy 
tropical  rains  and  deep  streams  to  men  "  going  home  "  ? 
And  yet  one  of  the  swamps  we  crossed  reached  to  the  arm- 
pits !  Upon  leaving  Koomassee  I  had  hoped  that  the  whole 
force  might  have  reached  Aggemmamu  that  day,  but  I  was 
delayed  in  crossing  the  Ordah  River  where  I  found  my 
bridge  submerged  and  with  two  and  a  half  feet  of  water 
running  rapidly  over  it.  Only  tall  men  could  ford  the  river, 
keeping  their  mouths  above  the  water.  I  sent  the  Naval 
Brigade  over  the  bridge,  the  superstructure  of  which  became 
more  ricketty  every  moment.  It  seemed  to  be  touch-and- 
go  whether  it  would  last  tUl  night.  More  than  half  the 
Rifle  Brigade  and  all  the  Black  Watch  had  to  ford,  their 

363 


THE    STORY  OF   A  SOLDIER'S  LIFE 

clothes  being  taken  over  on  the  heads  of  natives.  Having 
seen  all  across  I  pushed  on  with  a  small  escort  and  reached 
Aggemmamu  just  before  nightfall. 

We  had  a  bad  night  of  heavy  rain.  The  Black  Watch, 
the  Rifle  Brigade,  and  the  Artillery  marched  in  and  halted 
there  the  following  day,  whilst  the  Welsh  Fusiliers  and  the 
Naval  Brigade  went  on  to  spend  the  night  at  Amoaful. 
Not  a  shot  was  fired  during  the  day.  I  spent  it  writing 
home,  and  at  5  p.m.  my  A.D.C.,  Captain  the  Hon.  Henry 
Wood,  started  for  England  with  despatches  for  the  Govern- 
ment. 

One  thought  banished  all  other  reflections  as  we  saw  him 
leave  camp  that  evening  for  home  :  "  Will  the  Queen  be 
satisfied  with  what  her  soldiers  and  sailors  have  accomplished 
in  the  trying  campaign  just  finished  ?  " 

As  those  at  home  discuss  some  mihtary  achievement  de- 
scribed in  the  morning  papers  few  realize  how  much  the 
soldiers  or  sailors  concerned  hang  upon  the  question,  "  What 
wUl  they  say  in  England  ?  " 

The  despatch  I  then  sent  home  ended  thus  : — "  In  the 
despatch  which  I  addressed  to  you  on  October  13  last,  ask- 
ing for  English  troops  to  be  sent  out  to  enable  me  to  accom- 
plish my  mission,  I  stated  that  that  mission,  to  ensure  a 
lasting  peace  with  the  Ashantee  kingdom,  could  only  be 
fulfilled  in  one  way — by  defeating  the  Ashantee  army,  by 
pursuing  it  if  necessary  to  the  capital  of  the  Ashantee  king- 
dom, and  by  thus  showing  to  the  King  and  all  those  chiefs 
who  urged  him  on  to  war  that  the  arm  of  Her  Majesty 
is  powerful  to  punish  her  enemies,  even  in  the  very  heart  of 
their  own  country.  That  mission  I  conceive  I  have  now 
fulfilled  by  the  aid  of  the  troops  which  Her  Majesty's 
Government  confided  to  me  for  its  accomplishment.     Yet 

364 


OUR    KILLED    AND    WOUNDED 

I  can  truly  state  that  no  means  were  left  untried  by  me  to 
bring  about  a  peaceable  solution  of  the  campaign.  Up  to 
the  last  hour  I  left  the  King's  palace  untouched  in  hopes 
that  he  would  return  to  make  peace.  The  troops  refrained, 
with  the  most  admirable  self-control,  from  spoliation  or 
plunder  ;  they  left  the  capital  of  the  kingdom,  famed  for 
its  gold,  without  carrying  away  as  plunder  one  article  of 
value." 

I  reached  Fommanah  on  our  return  march  on  February  lo, 
1874,  having  burnt  and  destroyed  every  village  I  passed 
through.  I  had  had  messengers  from  the  King  the  day  before, 
whom  I  sent  back  at  once  to  tell  him  that  I  meant  to  halt 
there  two  days  and  that  if,  before  I  resumed  my  march, 
accredited  messengers  from  him  arrived  with  £20,000  of  gold 
I  would  make  peace.  I  sent  back  all  our  sick  and  wounded 
to  the  coast  and  cleared  out  everything  behind  me. 

I  found  that  in  our  three  days'  fighting  before  we  took 
Koomassee  our  loss  in  officers  was  three  killed  and  a  number 
wounded,  and  of  all  other  ranks,  13  killed  and  368  wounded. 
It  was  sad  news  to  learn  that  some  of  the  wounded  English- 
men were  dying. 

Captain  Sartorious,  of  the  Indian  Cavalry,  joined  me  here 
on  February  12,  with  an  escort  of  only  twenty  men  from 
Captain  Glover's  camp,  which  he  had  left  about  noon  two 
days  before.  He  had  come  through  Koomassee,  whose 
ruins  were  still  smoking.  Nothing  could  prove  better  than 
his  march  did  how  utterly  Ashantee  power  and  renown 
had  been  destroyed  at  Amoaful  and  Ordahsu,  and  by  our 
capture  and  destruction  of  Koomassee. 

Out  of  the  six  great  feudatory  princes  who  ruled  Ashantee 
provinces,  one  had  been  killed  in  battle,  one  was  a  prisoner 
in  my  camp,  a  third  wanted  to  join  him  there,  and  two  others 

365 


THE    STORY    OF   A   SOLDIER'S   LIFE 

begged  of  me  to  allow  them  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to 
our  Queen. 

In  the  evening  of  that  same  day  a  messenger  came  into 
Fommanah  to  announce  that  King  Koffee's  envoy  was  in  a 
village  close  at  hand  with  the  gold  I  had  demanded  and  ready 
to  make  peace.  I  desired  the  envoy  to  come  into  my  camp 
at  daybreak.  That  same  evening  I  received  a  telegram 
from  Cape  Coast  Castle  informing  me  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
and  his  Government  had  resigned  office.  This  startling 
news  made  a  great  impression  upon  most  of  us. 

The  Harmattan  wind  had  now  been  blowing  for  some 
time,  so  that  although  the  days  were  still  hot  the  nights 
had  become  actually  cold. 

A  few  days  later  the  King's  envoys  arrived  with  1,040  ozs. 
of  gold  :  they  said  the  King  could  not  collect  the  5,000  ozs. 
I  had  demanded.  Of  course  this  was  untrue,  but  we  had  so 
completely  smashed  up  the  Ashantee  power  that,  as  far  as 
England  was  concerned  it  mattered  very  little  whether 
we  obtained  all  the  gold  I  had  demanded  or  only  a  fifth  of 
it,  as  long  as  we  secured  peace  on  her  West  African  frontiers, 
as  we  had  done  by  the  practical  destruction  of  the  only 
native  power  that  could  have  seriously  disturbed  it  in 
future. 

Two  days  later  we  reached  Prahsu,  where  I  went  round 
the  hospitals,in  which  we  still  had  105  patients,  most  of  them 
wounded  men.  Alas !  the  doctors  told  me  that  two  of 
them  must  die.  Such  is  war  :  but  the  soldier  whose  turn 
has  not  yet  come  consoles  himself  with  the  trite  saw  that 
"  all  must  die  some  time  or  other."  Most  of  us,  however, 
have  ambitions  or  some  aims  in  life  and  do  not  wish  to  die 
before  they  have  been  won.  In  passing,  may  I  ask  when 
is  it  that  any  one  in  his  heart  believes  he  has  fully  achieved 

366 


RETURN    TO    CAPE    COAST    CASTLE 

those  ends  ?  Before  reaching  the  sea  I  overtook  another 
convoy  of  sick  and  wounded  en  route  for  England.  The 
worst  cases  it  had  started  with,  had  died  already.  Two  of 
them  were  naval  officers  who  had  died  the  day  before.  One 
was  a  fine  young  fellow  who  had  been  so  badly  hit  in  the  head 
at  Amoaful  that  I  did  not  then  think  he  would  have  lived 
so  long. 

I  reached  Cape  Coast  Castle  on  February  19,  and  had  an 
extraordinary  reception  by  its  curiously  excitable  Fantee 
inhabitants.  The  whole  population  were  in  the  streets,  and 
half  wild  with  passionate  delight,  the  women  shouting 
themselves  hoarse,  and  throwing  themselves  in  heaps  on  the 
ground  before  me.  It  was  a  strange  sight,  full  of  colour  in 
every  sense,  for  all  ranks  were  decked  in  the  brightest  and 
gaudiest  of  tints.  But  no  hue  is  ever  too  brilliant  for  the 
shiny  black  face  of  the  negro  girl. 

Amidst  the  excitement  of  this  "  triumphal  "  entry,  the 
sad  reflection  recurred  to  me  continually,  that  of  all  the 
staff  I  had  landed  with,  or  who  had  subsequently  joined  to 
fill  vacancies,  only  one  marched  with  me  that  day  to 
Government  House,  my  military  secretary.  Captain,  now 
the  able  and  distinguished  General,  Sir  Henry  Brackenbury. 

The  troops  began  to  embark  according  as  they  reached 
Cape  Coast  Castle.  Among  our  transports  we  had  a  very 
fine  hospital  ship,  and  I  never  saw  the  sick  and  wounded  in 
any  war  more  comfortable  or  better  looked  after  than  those 
were  on  board  of  her.  Lord  Cardwell  neglected  nothing 
that  forethought  could  provide  for.  He  was  indeed  a  great 
War  Minister. 

On  March  4,  1874,  I  embarked  with  all  my  staff  on  board 
the  Manitoba,  bound  for  Portsmouth.  My  one  regret  in 
bidding  good-bye  for  ever  to  the  Gold  Coast  was,  that  it 

367 


THE    STORY  OF  A   SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

meant  leaving  behind  me  the  most  helpful  of  colleagues, 
the  best  of  comrades,  I  mean  Commodore,  afterwards 
Admiral,  Sir  William  Hewett.  He  was  truly  a  man  in  a 
million. 

During  the  Ashantee  campaign  the  Army  and  Navy  had 
worked  most  cordially  together  in  every  way  and  upon  all 
occasions.  It  can  be  truthfully  asserted  that  the  State, 
for  which  both  Army  and  Navy  exist,  never  suffered  in  the 
least  through  any  jealousy  whatever  between  these  two 
services.  Whatever  I  asked  Captain  Freemantle,  and  sub- 
sequently Commodore  Hewett,  to  do  for  the  troops,  was  done 
without  a  moment's  hesitation  and  with  an  alacrity  on  the 
part  of  all  ranks  that  nothing  could  exceed.  I  often  said 
to  the  latter  officer  in  fun  that  had  I  asked  him  to  haul  up 
his  flag-ship  by  road  to  Koomassee,  he  would  have  tried  to 
do  so.  No  two  men  ever  worked  as  loyal  comrades  together 
with  greater  cordiality  and  in  more  absolute  harmony  than 
did  Sir  William  Hewett  and  I.  He  was  the  bravest  of  brave 
men,  an  officer  of  boundless  resource  and  the  staunchest  of 
friends.  Our  soldiers  delighted  in  him,  and  his  cheery 
manner  in  action  was  to  me  worth  an  extra  battalion.  I 
shall  never  see  his  like  again  on  sea  or  land.  He  has  gone 
before  me  to  that  unknown  land,  the  other  world.  But  surely 
there  must  be  a  United  Service  Club  there  where  old  Army 
and  Navy  men  may  meet  to  talk  over  the  wars  by  land  and 
sea  in  which  they  fought  their  best,  and  often  suffered  much 
for  Queen  and  country. 

From  the  Ashantees  I  learnt  one  important  lesson,  namely, 
that  any  virile  race  can  become  paramount  in  its  own  region 
of  the  world  if  it  possesses  the  courage,  the  constancy  of 
purpose  and  the  self-sacrffice  to  resolve  that  it  will  live  under 
a  stern  system  of  Spartan  military  discipline,  ruthlessly 

368 


OUR    RETURN    VOYAGE 

enforced  by  one  lord  and  master,  the  King.  In  other  words, 
if  it  be  clearly  recognized  by  any  people  that  the  interests 
and  comfort  of  the  individual,  whether  he  be  king  or  subject, 
should  not  be  the  first  object  of  national  solicitude,  but 
rather  that  it  should  be  the  greatness  and  power  of  the  state 
as  a  whole,  a  greatness  which  brings  with  it  national  pride, 
individual  security  and  also  contentment,  that  nation  will 
rule  over  its  neighbours.  Learn  from  the  bees  how  the  hive 
is  governed  :  their  system  is  based  upon  this  principle,  and 
with  what  regularity  and  success  it  is  followed  in  those 
industrious  yet  brave  and  fighting  communities. 

The  Ashantee  and  the  Fantee  were  absolutely  of  the 
same  race.  The  former  were  a  proud  nation  of  brave  and 
daring  soldiers,  living  happily  and  contentedly  under  the 
most  absolute  of  kings.  The  latter,  who  lived  and  idled 
under  the  licence  of  our  easy-going  laws,  were  cowardly, 
lazy,  good-for-nothing  vagabonds,  with  all  the  vices  of  the 
Ashantee  but  with  none  of  his  manly  courage. 

I  don't  preach  as  an  apostle  of  military  despotism  :  I 
merely  wish  to  point  out  that  it  has  its  good  as  well  as  its 
bad  sides  ;  and  that  in  some  cases  it  supplies  the  nation 
brave  enough  to  adopt  it  with  a  renown  that  makes  Ufe 
worth  living  and  worth  fighting  for. 

Our  voyage  home  was  uneventful.  Many  old  friends 
came  to  meet  me  a^  Portsmouth,  where  I  was  received  with 
much  flattering  h  jnour  by  the  ships  of  war,  etc.,  etc.  When 
travelling  to  London,  I  asked  my  staunch  friend.  Colonel 
Sydney  North,  who  was  beside  me,  if  there  was  any  news  in 
town.  He  said  no,  but  correcting  himself  in  a  moment,  he 
said,  "  Oh,  we  have  had  a  big  fire  there."  Not  being  much 
interested,  I  said  in  a  very  conventional  tone,  "  Where  ?  " 
to  which  he  replied,  "  Oh  !  only  the  Pantechnicon."     "  The 

VOL.  II.  369  B  E 


THE    STORY   OF  A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

devil,"  I  said  quickly,  at  once  intensely  interested  in  the 
matter.  "  All  my  goods  and  chattels  were  stored  there, 
and  they  were  not  even  insured."  But  no  insurance  money 
could  replace  them,  for  amongst  other  things  that  I  regretted 
extremely  were  old  family  papers,  reminiscences  of  my  boy- 
hood, and  old  letters,  my  Burmese,  Crimean,  Indian  and 
Red  River  journals,  and  also  aU  my  books  were  gone.  The 
last  named  I  could  replace,  but  my  journals,  the  daily 
record  of  my  campaigning  and  exciting  life,  I  should  see  no 
more .  I  felt  this  loss  at  the  time,  and  I  still  regret  it  deeply. 
What  would  I  not  now  give  even  for  the  elaborate  log  I  kept 
during  my  nearly  four  months'  voyage  from  the  Thames  to 
the  Hooghly  when  I  was  a  boy  ensign,  even  then  a  great 
reader  of  military  history  and  of  all  books  on  the  soldiers' 
arts  and  sciences. 

The  late  Queen  reviewed  in  Windsor  Park  the  British 
troops  who  had  taken  part  in  the  campaign,  and  on  the 
ground  presented  me  with  my  new  orders  of  knighthood. 
The  review  was  in  a  beautiful  part  of  the  park,  the  weather 
was  fine,  and  it  was  very  largely  attended.  So  ended  the 
most  horrible  war  I  ever  took  part  in. 


370 


CHAPTER    L 
Our  Habitual  Unpreparedness  for  War 

WHEN  I  look  back  upon  all  whom  I  have  known  in 
public  life,  I  am  constrained  to  admit  that  only  a  few 
possessed  the  combination  of  mental  and  physical  qualities 
that  are  required  by  a  great  commander  in  the  field.  I 
have,  met  scores  of  brave  men  who  performed  the  ordinary 
routine  of  regimental  and  brigade  work  most  creditably,  but 
who  were  yet  absolutely  unfit  for  any  high  or  even  for  any 
independent  command.  At  the  time  I  write  of,  few 
soldiers  concentrated  whatever  may  have  been  their  think- 
ing power  upon  the  science  of  war.  The  British  officer 
then  was  commonly  accounted  well  read  and  instructed 
in  his  profession  if  he  had  mastered  even  the  art 
of  war,  whilst  most  of  us  were  content  with  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  evolutions  described  in  the  official  drill 
books.  The  State  held  out  no  inducement  to  her  officers 
to  study  anything  not  contained  therein.  Very  few  at  that 
time  had  any  ambition  beyond  regimental  promotion,  and 
fewer  stiU  were  those  who  possessed  imagination.  And  yet, 
without  that  great  gift  only  a  very  inferior  order  of  ambition 
in  any  walk  of  life  can  be  satisfied,  and  certainly  without  it 
no  one  can  ever  become  a  renowned  leader  of  armies.  How 
largely  it  was  possessed  by  Moses,  Xenophon,  Hannibal, 
Caesar,  Turenne,  Marlborough,  Napoleon  and  WeUington ! 
It  is  said  to  rule  the  world,  and  we  are  told  that  the  chief 

371 


THE  STORY    OF    A    SOLDIER'S  LIFE 

difference  between  the  successful  and  the  unsuccessful  in 
most  high  positions  is  the  possession  of  it  by  the  former  and 
the  want  of  it  in  the  latter.  And  yet,  whilst  imagination 
may  convert  into  a  poet  the  man  of  poor  physique,  it  would 
not  of  itself  make  an  able  general  of  him.  He  who  aspires 
to  lead  soldiers  in  war  should  be  not  only  a  thorough  master 
of  the  soldier's  science,  but  he  must  possess  a  healthy 
strength  of  body,  an  iron  nerve,  calm  determination,  and 
be  instinct  with  that  electric  power  which  causes  men  to 
follow  the  leader  who  possesses  it,  as  readily,  as  surely,  as 
iron  filings  do  the  magnet.  The  great  thinker  may  possibly 
be  blind  or  halt  or  lame,  and  even  wanting  in  personal 
courage,  and  yet  leave  behind  him  a  far  more  lasting  mark 
upon  the  history  of  the  world  than  all  the  fighting  men  by 
land  and  sea  who  were  his  contemporaries.  But  a  man  with 
such  physical  defects  could  never  have  been  converted  into 
a  great  leader  of  men.  All  this  means  that  whilst  no  one 
can  be  a  great  general  who  lacks  the  inestimable  gift  of 
imagination,  yet  not  all  the  imagination  of  a  Milton  will  of 
itself  alone  enable  any  one  to  be  great  in  war. 

It  is  the  necessity  for  this  rare,  this  exceptional  combina- 
tion of  mental  gifts  with  untiring  physical  power  and  stern 
resolution  that  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  truly  great 
commander  is  rare  indeed  amongst  God's  creations. 

Some  are  inclined  to  scoff  at  the  great  national  advantages 
said  to  follow  upon  inherited  traditions  of  fighting  prowess. 
But  can  any  people  inherit  what  is  more  inspiring  as  a 
sentiment,  more  advantageous  as  an  actual  possession  ? 
The  strong  man  armed  is  always  respected  as  an  individual, 
and  with  a  nation  the  reputation  of  her  sons  for  manly 
strength  and  daring  cannot  fail  to  be  a  great  national  asset. 

The  unimaginative  may  profess  to  scoff  at  martial  renown 

372 


ENGLAND    THE    UNREADY    NATION 

because  it  does  not  necessarily  bring  with  it  either  wealth 
or  commercial  prosperity.  It  may  be,  as  it  is  with  us  at 
times,  relied  upon  to  a  dangerous  extent,  for  reflection  warns 
us  that  even  during  profound  peace  it  is  nationally  dangerous 
to  habitually  ignore  the  necessity  of  being  strong  in  fact,  as 
well  as  by  repute.  This  is  specially  the  case  when  your 
frontiers  are  not  duly  protected  from  the  serious  attacks 
of  warlike  neighbours.  It  matters  little  whether  the  rulers 
of  such  States  be  autocrats  or  democratic  Cabinets,  for 
whatever  be  their  form  of  Government  they  may  at  any 
moment  become  the  most  dangerous  of  enemies,  and  to 
ignore  this  possibility  is  no  mark  of  statesmanship  nor  of 
wisdom  in  any  form.  Besides  our  great  and  splendid  fleet 
we  require  for  national  defence  a  highly  trained  standing 
army  supported  by  great  reserves  of  trained  soldiers  always 
ready  to  take  the  field  with  every  necessary  warlike  appli- 
ance. And  this  we  can  never  have  without  some  form  of 
compulsory  military  service.  The  nation  in  such  a  condition 
of  military  and  naval  strength  can  almost  always  count  upon 
being  able  to  avoid  war,  whilst  the  nation  unprepared  for 
war  must  always  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  neighbouring  bully. 
We  are  never  ready  for  war,  and  yet  we  never  have  a  Cabinet 
that  would  dare  to  tell  the  people  this  truth.  Our  absolute 
unreadiness  for  war  is  known  to  all  our  thoughtful  soldiers, 
and  without  any  doubt  all  the  details  which  go  to  make  up 
the  fact  are  duly  recorded  and  docketed  in  the  War  Office 
of  every  European  nation.  But  these  secrets  (!)  are  stu- 
diously kept  from  our  people  by  those  whom  we  elect  to 
govern  us.  When  under  the  pressure  of  impending  danger 
one  Government  purchases  the  munitions  and  stores  that 
war  would  require,  the  next  Administration,  when  the  war 
clouds  have  cleared  away,  uses  these  stores  to  supply  the 

373 


THE    STORY    OF  A    SOLDIER'S    LIFE 

ordinary  wants  of  peace,  and  are  thus  able  to  save  a  corre- 
sponding amount  upon  their  Army  votes  for  one  or  more 
years  to  come.  The  ignorant  pubhc,  finding  the  War  Office 
demands  for  money  correspondingly  reduced,  rejoice  because 
they  have  at  last  been  blessed  with  an  economical  set  of 
Ministers !  Those  who  during  peace  contemplate  the 
possibility  of  war  are  regarded  in  no  favourable  light  by 
the  professional  politician  in  office.  In  the  midst  of  peace, 
plenty,  and  prosperity,  it  is  not  pleasant  to  the  easy-going 
to  be  reminded  that  it  is  only  the  actually  strong  nation 
that  can  always  command  peace. 

Running  through  the  character  of  all  the  best  soldiers 
I  have  known  in  our  Army,  there  is  the  love  of  national 
glory.  The  man  who  chases  glory  through  the  world  solely 
from  greed  of  personal  renown,  may  be  the  bravest  of  the 
brave  and  the  ablest  of  generals,  but  his  is  not  the  character 
the  good  man  respects  and  the  patriot  reveres.  As  a 
national  characteristic,  pure  love  of  glory  has  often  been  the 
spur  that  pushed  forward  some  of  God's  greatest  agents  in 
our  world.  It  has  in  all  ages  prompted  men  to  noble  and 
heroic  actions.  It  is  an  invaluable  asset  of  national  great- 
ness, and  where  it  is  not  to  be  found,  the  State,  be  it  large 
or  small,  resembles  the  lighthouse  whose  lamps,  though 
possibly  of  the  best  pattern,  are  without  any  illuminating 
medium.  Glory  is  no  firework  that,  mounting  high,  is 
brilliant  for  a  moment  and  then  splutters  and  fizzles  as  it 
tumbles  back  to  earth.  True  glory  shines  like  a  fixed  star 
in  the  heavens  of  nations  really  great.  It  is  begotten  of 
honour  and  courage,  and  it  cannot  long  exist  when  they  have 
disappeared.  So  effective,  so  powerful  for  good  is  glory 
amongst  all  high-spirited  peoples,  that  it  seems  to  raise  the 
moral  character  of  those  who  can  justly  lay  claim  to  it. 

374 


A   NATION   WITHOUT   GLORY 

Those  who  in  youth  learn  to  value  it  as  a  holy  possession  are, 
as  life  goes  on,  inspired  by  its  influence.  It  becomes  eventu- 
ally a  sort  of  national  religion  and  a  veritable  and  powerful 
force  in  the  character  of  a  people.  From  this  force  springs 
the  national  ambition  that  makes  all  grades,  the  old  and 
young,  to  wish  their  State  to  grow  strong  and  powerful,  and 
which  instils  an  admiration  for  those  doughty,  virtuous  and 
noble  deeds  which  adorn  history  and  give  birth  to  patriotism. 

A  nation  without  glory  is  like  a  man  without  courage,  a 
woman  without  virtue.  It  takes  the  first  place  in  our  human 
estimate  of  national  fame.  AU  States  long  for  it,  and 
certainly  it  is  a  big  factor  in  that  consciousness  of  national 
strength  which  commands  the  respect  of  both  friends  and 
enemies.  It  is  a  national  heirloom  of  priceless  value  to  the 
people  to  whom  the  world  accord  it  and  who  are  ready  to 
fight  rather  than  risk  its  loss.  When  the  nation  to  whom 
it  was  once  universally  conceded  begins  to  sneer  at  it  as 
unimportant,  and  to  ridicule  its  worth,  the  tide  of  that 
nation's  greatness  has  surely  turned  :  its  manly  vigour  is  on 
the  wane,  its  moral  fibre  is  deteriorating.  If  unchecked  in 
this  downward  movement  that  nation  wiU  soon  pass  into 
the  boneless,  sinewless  condition  of  the  jeUyfish,  drifting 
with  every  tide  and  current,  and  will  then  cease  to  share  in 
the  direction  of  the  world's  great  affairs. 

Glory  to  a  nation  is  what  sunlight  is  to  aU  human  beings. 
Without  it  the  State  dwindles  in  size  and  grows  weak  in 
strength,  as  the  man  in  a  dark  dungeon  becomes  daily 
whiter,  until  at  last  his  whiteness  passes  into  the  colourless- 
ness of  death. 

The  noble  courage  that  has  its  origin  in  love  of  country 
and  sense  of  duty  is  not  confined  to  the  well-bom  ;  it  is  to 
be  equally  found  in  the  uneducated  private  soldier.     What 

375 


THE    STORY    OF  A    SOLDIER'S  LIFE 

can  be  finer  than  his  love  of  regiment,  his  devotion  to  its 
reputation,  and  his  determination  to  protect  its  honour ! 
To  him  "  The  Regiment "  is  mother,  sister  and  mistress. 
That  its  fame  may  Hve  and  flourish  he  is  prepared  to  risk  all 
and  to  die  without  a  murmur.  What  earthly  cause  calls 
forth  greater  enthusiasm  ?  It  is  a  high,  an  admirable  phase 
of  patriotism,  for,  to  the  soldier,  his  regiment  is  his  country. 

Keep  your  hands  off  the  regiment,  ye  iconoclastic  civilian 
officials  who  meddle  and  muddle  in  Army  matters.  Clever 
politicians  you  may  be,  but  you  are  not  soldiers  and  you  do 
not  understand  them  ;  they  are  not  pawns  on  a  chessboard. 
Leave  the  management  of  our  fighting  men  to  soldiers  of 
experience  in  our  British  Army  of  old  renown,  and  do  not 
parody  us  by  appearing  in  public  decked  for  the  nonce  in  a 
soldier's  khaki  coat.  You  might  as  well  put  your  arm  in  a 
sling,  or  tie  your  head  up  in  the  bandage  of  some  poor 
maimed  soldier,  to  whom,  when  wounded  and  unable  to 
earn  a  livelihood,  your  regulations  allow  a  pension  of 
sixpence  a  day ! 

I  have  now  told  the  story  of  my  early  military  career 
from  Ensign  to  Major-General,  and  would  here  take  leave 
of  those  who  have  read  so  far. 

But  should  my  narrative  interest  the  general  reader,  it 
will  be  a  pleasure  to  continue  it  to  the  date  when  I  gladly 
bid  good-bye  to  the  War  Ofhce  and  ceased  to  be  the  nominal 
Commander-in-Chief   of  Her  Majesty's  Land  Forces. 


376 


Index   to   Vol.    II 


Abolition  of  purchase,  235 

Resisted  by  old  officers,  236 
Abracrampa,  303 

Attacked,  304 

Relieved,  305 
Airey,  Lord,  239,  242,  245 
AUeyne,  Lieutenant  J.,  175 
Alexander,  Fort,  from  Rat  Portage, 
211 

Reached,  214 
Amanquatia,  303 

His  camp  equipment  taken,  307 
Ambriz  steamer,  276 
American  courtesy  to  women,  125 
Anderson,  Lieutenant,  64 
Anson,  Hon.  Augustus,  15,  34,  254 
Antietam,  123 

Campaign,  137 
An-ting  Gate,  81 
Armstrong  guns  in  action,  69 
Army  embarks  at  Hong-Kong  for 
North  China,  16 

Reaches  Talienwan  Bay,  20 

Lands  at  Peh-Tang,  23 

Out-of-date,  235,  236 

In  a  sickly  condition,  228 

Reform   begun   in   earnest,    226, 
231,  233 

Regulations  made   for   the   con- 
venience of  officers,  233 

Reform  abused  by  society,  236, 

237 
Tools  bad,  178,  179  > 

Reserve      denounced      by      Old 

School,  234,  237 
Reserve  pecuharly  necessary  for 
England,  229 
Ashantee  Embassy,  320 

Funeral,  320 
Ashantee  War,  257 

War  Office  meeting  upon,  267 
Appointed  to  command  in,  269 


Assault  of  Taku  Forts,  32,  46,  51 
Augury,    evil,    about     Red    River 
Expedition,  195 


Baltimore,  120,  124 

Ladies  of,  125,  127 
Baltimore's  Lord,  House,  129 
Battlefields,  southern,  132 
Baring,  Evelyn,  255 
Barracks  in  Canada,  1 1 1 
Battery  erected  at  Pekin,  81 
Bengal  Mutiny,  i 
Biddulph,  General  Sir  R,  J.,  252 
Bishop,  Protestant,  203,  209 

Tache,  204 
Black  Watch,  the,  313 
Blackwood,  Mr.  John,  126 
Boat    equipment    for    Red    River 
Expedition,  177 

Used  in  Red  River  Expedition, 
176,  191,  210 
Boats  used — contents  of  each,  177, 

178 
Bosphorus,  the,  89 
Boston,  visit  to,  109 
Brackenbury,  General,  255,  280 
Braddock,  General,  his  fate  said  to 

await  us,  196 
Bridge,  infantry,  at  Taku  Forts,  32 

Of  boats  over  Pei-Ho,  68 

At  Prahsu,  320 
British  officer,   his    qualities,   209, 

233 
Regiments  on  the  Gold  Coast,  313 
Bruce,  Sir  Frederick,  4,  86 
Buffalo,  a  Fenian  centre,  152 
Buller,  Sir  Redvers,  177,  278 
Bull  Run,  battle  of,  117 
Bulwer,  General  Sir  E.,  255 
Bunker's  Hill,  battle  of,  109 
Burgoyne,  the  Duke  of  Wellington's 
letter  to,  232 


377 


INDEX 


Butler,   General 
202 


Sir  William,   200, 


expen- 


Cabinets  usually  postpone 

sive  changes,  241 
Cambridge,  Duke  of,  received  by, 

226,  234 
Camellias  of  Poo-Too,  1 5 
Camp  inundated,  38 
Canada,  good-bye  to,  225 

Military  reorganization  of,  145 

Military     reorganization,    excel- 
lence of,  159,  174 
Canadian  Seigneur,  112 

Regiments    should    be    officered 
from  Canada,  148 

Priesthood  and  Red  River  Rebel- 
lion, 168,  169 

Surveyors    frighten    Red    River 
Half-breeds,  169 

Cabinet,  in  1870,  171 
Canal,  Yung-Leang,  68 
Canton,  affairs  in,  3,  9 

Executions  in,  9 
Cape  Breton  Island,   106 
Cape  Coast,  reach,  285 

The  surf  at,  286 

Castle,  289 

Levies,  cowardice  of,  306 
Cape  Government  House,  286 
Cardwell,  Mr.,  226,  228,  231,  234, 
235.  237 

In  office,  250,  251 

Killed  by  overwork,  256 

Plans  for  war,  262 

Description  of  him,  271 

How  much  the  country  owes  him 
for   his   being   ready   for   war 
against  the  Boers,  273 
Cartier,  Sir  George,  171 
Cavalry  charge  at  Sin-Ho,  27] 

Charge,  41 
Chang-kia-wan,  66,  67 

Ambush  prepared   there  for  us, 
64 
Chaplain,  negro.  Cape  Coast,  291 

Ensign  at  Taku  Forts,  36 
Charteris,  Alfred,  284 
Che-foo,  French  select  as  a  rendez- 

t^"  vous,  17 
China,  the  future  possibilities,  90 
China  War,  origin  of,  3 
Chinese  people  very  great,  2 

Cavalry  cut  my  party  off,  61 

Duplicity,  62,  158 


Chinese  Contempt  for  death,  94 
Proud  of  their  writing,  99 

Chippewahs    (or    Ojibewahs),    183, 
190 

Christmas  Day,  1871,  107 

Chusan,  11,  12,  13 

Civil  and  Military  Powers  combined 
for  Ashantee  War,  269 

Civil  necessity  of  this  in  all  such 
wars,  269 

Climate  on  Gold  Coast,  313 

CoUey,  his  worth  and  character,  317 

Colley,  an  army  reformer,  255 

CoUingwood  to  Thunder   Bay,  dis- 
tance, 181 

Commerell,  Commodore,  wounded, 
28s 

Commissioners  sent   to   Crimea   to 
collect  evidence,  245 

Confederate  War,  hear  that  it  had 


begun,  100 


124 


Army,  visit  to,  117,  122,  123, 
Army  invades  Maryland,  120 
Officers,  their  kindness  and  good 

manners,  131 
Minister  of  War,  his  kindness  and 
courtesy,  133 

Consort,  Prince,  his  death,  108 

Convoy,  our,  to  America,  104,  105 

Cooly  corps,  9,  18 

Cremorne  Gardens  in  Japan,  91 

Cromer,  255 

Croomen,  292 

Cruelty  of  negro,  290 

D 

Damio,  the  Japanese,  92 

Davis,  Mr.,  118,  119 

Believes  he  is  a  strategist, 

119 
This    belief    went     far    to    ruin 
cause  of  Confederate  Indepen- 
dence, 119 

Dawson,    Mr.,    of    Canada,    Public 
Works,  117,  192 

Denison,  Col.  George,  148,  159,  225 
At  Thorold  Camp,  163 

De  Norman,  64 

Dixey  Land,  131 

Douglas  Point,  expedition  landed 
at,  218 

Doyle,  Sir  Hastings,  108 

Ducks  on  Yung-Leang  Canal,  70 

Dunquah,  303 

Duppy,  Crooman's  god,  292 


118, 


378 


INDEX 


E.,  Prince  of,  59,  72 

Earthquakes  in  Japan,  92 

Elgin,  Lord,  taken  in,  55,  59,  73,  74, 

75.  76,  77 
Treaty    found    in    Yuen  -  Ming 

Palace,  79 
Makes  fresh  offers  to  king,  83 
Elmina,  260 

Embark  for  Canada,  104 
Engineers,  Royal,  319 
English    feeling    in    Canada    upon 

Mr.  Scott's  murder,  173 
Erie,    Fort,    Canada,    Militia    land 

there  and  are  defeated,  158 
Essaman,  our  first  fight  at,  301,  302 
Expedition  to  Red  River  decided 
upon,    174 
Col.  Wolseley  chosen  to  command 
it,  174 

F 

False  news,  I  spread,  298,  299 
Fane's  regiment,  69 
Fantees,    unreliable   and   cowardly 
liars,  312 

Spies,  312 
Feilden,  Colonel,  194 
Fenians,  145,  151,  161 

Invasion  of  Canada,  152 

In  Ogdensburg,  153 

Cross  into  Niagara  peninsula,  156 

Strive  to  stop  Red  River  Expedi- 
tion at  Ste.  Marie,  184,  185 
Festing,  Colonel,  260,  303 
Fever,  overtaken  by,  307 

Dreams,  310 
Fiery  Cross,  embark  in,  7 
Fleet,  allied,  under  sail,  20 
Foreboding     of     misfortune     for 

Ashantee  War,  274 
Fort  Francis,  181 

News  received  there,  204 
Fort  Garry,  181 

William,  181 
Franco-German  War,  227,  232 

Woke  us  up,  235 
Fredericksburg,  131 
Freemantle,  Captain,  299 

Wounded,  300 
French   contingent,  our,  in   China, 
21 

Hampered  our  movements,  21,  22 
French  gallantry,  35,  51 

Army,  collapse  of,  227 

Assault  Taku  Forts,  35,  51 


French  wished  to  postpone    attack 
at    Taku,  39 
Convoy,  non-arrival  of,  delays  us, 

75 
Frenchman  Creek,  we  detram  at,  161 

Funeral,  Ashantee,  320 

\G 

Gardner,  Rev.  Mr.,  meets  me  at  Rat 

Portage,  209 
Garrisons,  our  foreign,  229 
Fort  Garry,  Half-breed  rebellion  at, 
165,  170,  181 

Journey  to  in  forty  days,  175,  179 

Position  of,  218 
Gatling  gun,  320 
Georgian  Bay,  181 
Germany's  first  naval  squadron,  91 
Gifford,  283 
Gladstone,  Mr.,  227 

Trust  in  Cardwell,  272 
Glover,  Captain.R.N.,  294,  295,  296 

Sent  to  the  Volta  River,  266 
Godwin,  Captain,  wounded,  303 
Gold  Coast  climate,  313 
Gordon,  Colonel  Charley,  90 

Sir  John,   104 
Grahame's,  Gerald,  coolness,  33 
Grand  Trunk  Railway,  1 1 1 
Grant,  Sir  H.,  76,  77 

Selected   to   command   in   China 
War,  5 

His  religious  faith,  6 

His  character,  87 

Conduct     him    to    Yuen  -  Ming 
Palace,  77 

Leaves  Tientsin  at  end  of  war,  87 
Greaves,  Sir  George,  280,  318 
Grenada,   12 

H 
Hall    of    Audience,    Treaty    to    be 

signed  there,  85 
Hanged,  negro  murderer,  290 
Hankow,  voyage  to,  97 

Reception  there,  98,  99 

Lifeboats  at,  98 
Harper's  Ferry,  Lee  crossing  at,  120 
Harrison,  Lieut.  R.,  56 
Heavenly  King,  94 
Heenan  and  Sayers,  fight  between, 

19 
Hiawatha's  country,   188 

Ho,   Governor-General,    54 

Ho,  means  River, 

Home,  Sir  Anthony,  iii  . 

Colonel,  282,  319 


379 


INDEX 


Hong-Kong,  reach,  7 

Army  embarks,  16 
Hope,  Sir  James,  4 
Horse   Guards,    The   Army    Head- 
quarters, 230,  239 
Horse-shoes,  Japanese,  92 
Ho-see-Woo,  reach,  58 
Houssas,   293 
Hudson  Bay,   181 

Company,  166,  167 

Posts,  206,  207 
Huron,  Lake,  181 


India,  British  garrison  in,  229 
Indian  North  American  chief,  113 
Inland  sea  of  Japan,  88,  89 
InteUigence  Department,  255 
Irishwoman  in  Fenian  raid,  161 
Irroquois,  the  best  canoe-men,  212, 
213 

J 

Jackson,  Stonewall,  118,  138 
Janin,  Baron,  General,  jj 
Japan,  88 

Japan's  naval  power,  89 
Japanese  Revolution,  90 

Theatre,  92 
Jessop,  25s 

K 

Kakabecka  Falls,  188 
Kaministiguia  River,  18  r 
Kimberley,  261 

Determined  expedition  should  go 
to  Gold  Coast,  268 

Viewed  Cape  Coast  affairs  as  a 
statesman,  271 
King  Koffee,  320 
King's  Dragoon  Guards,  68,  69 
Kowloon,  8 
Kung,  Prince,  71.  72,  73-  74,  75 

Frequent  communication  with,  75 

Letter  from,  80 

Left  Pekin,  80 

Description  of,  86 


La  Prairie  Camp,  147 

Lawrence,  St.,  canals,  allowed 
United  States  gunboats  to  pass 
during  Confederate  War,  186 

Lawley,  Sir  Frank,  128 


Lee,  General,    118 

His  plan  of  invasion,  123 

In  1862,  122 

My  interview  with,  135,  136 

His  bearing,  139,  140 
L.  E.  L.,  289 
Lifeboats,  Hankow,  98 
Lincoln's,  Mr.,  shrewdness,  142 
Lincoln,  A.,  103,  117,  118 
Lindsay,  Sir  James,  115,  149,  175, 

222 
Lisgar,    Lord,    remonstrates   about 

St.  Mary  River  Canal,  186 
Loads    carried    over    portages    by 

officers  and  men,  21 1 
Loch,  59,  63,  65,  74 

Released,  80 
Longstreet,  General,  141 

His  division  marches  past,  141 
Loot  in  Yuen-ming- Yuen  Palace, 

77,  78,  79 
My  present  of,  78 
Lower  Fort,  reached,  216 
Lowry,  Colonel,  now  General,  160 
Lumsden,  Sir  P.,  8 

M 

Macartney,  Lord,  83 
MacCarthy,  Sir  Charles,  258 
McClellan,  General,  119 

Recalled,  121 

Recalled   unexpectedly   by   Lee, 

136 
MacDonald,  Sir  John  A.,  171 
McDougall,   Sir  Patrick,    146,   231, 

255 
Mr.  W.,  selected  as  Governor  of 

Red  River  Territory,  173 

Mackenzie,  Jock,  7 

Colonel,  103,  115 
Maclean,  Governor,  2S9 
Macleod,  Sir  John,  313 
McNeill,  Col.  Sir  J.,  279 

Wounded,  300 
Magazines  in  Pel- Ho  Forts  explode, 

32,  50 
Mampon,  Ashantees  retreat  to,  260 
Mansfield,  2 
March  past  of  Longstreet's  Division, 

141 
Marines,  Royal,  12,2,^1 
Martingales,  effect  of,  69 
Mary  River,  St.,  181 
Maurice,  255,  280,  281 
Me/6oMme,  the  transport,  103,104 


380 


INDEX 


Menza,  Prince,  258 

Michel,  General  Sir  John,  79 

Mikado,  89 

Militia,  in  1871,  230 

Militia    and  volunteers  made  part 

of  army,  231 
Militia,  Canadian,  159,  211,  224 
Ming  tombs,  96 

Montauban,  General,  objects  to  Sir 
H.  Grant's  plan  for  capture, 
wishes  to  push  forward  after,  1 2 

Of  Taku  Forts,  30 

First  success,  42 

At  Yuen -ming- Yuen  Palace,  -jy 
Montreal,  reach,   no 

Life  there,  115 

Bid  good-bye  to,  224 
Mount-Stephen,     Lord,    make    his 

acquaintance,  116 
Muir,  Sir  William,  124 

N 

Nankin,  visit  to,  95 
Napier,  General  Lord,  79 

George,  160 
Napoleon,  1796,  122 
Native  Indian  troops,  9 
Naval  operations  on  West  Coast  of 
Africa,  265 

Brigade  landed,  318 

Brigade  reaches  Prahsu,  320 

Pets,  319 

Impotence  of  Japan  in  1870,  89 
Niagara  peninsula,  157 
Northbrook,  Lord,  231 

Ardent  Army  Reformer,  248 
"  Not  in  our  Time  "  policy,  242 

O 

O'Connor,  Commissary-General,  289 
Ogdensburg,  Fenians  in,  153 
Ojibewahs,  190 

Chief  visits  me,  190,  191 
Old    officers,    our,    resisted    Army 

Reform,  236 
Oliphant,  Lawrence,  88 
Opium     smoking     prohibited     by 

Taipings,  96 
Orpheus  frigate,  our    convoy,  104, 


Pa-U-cheaou  Bridge,  65,  70,  71,  73 

Leave,  75 
Paris,  stay  in,  loi 


Parkes,  Sir  H.,  12,  24,  59,  60,  62,  63, 
64,  65,  66,  72,  74 

Released,  80 
Peacock,  Colonel,  157 
PecheU,  Gulf  of,  17,  18 
Pehtang,  our  landing  place,  19 

A  filthy  town,  25 
Pei-Ho,  II 

Forts  evacuated,  54,  60 
Pekin,  surrender  of,  72,  82 

Government,  i,  4 

Encamp  before,  76 
Pheasants  at  Nankin,  96 
Phipps,  Private,  64,  80 
Pipe  clay  and  stocks,  239 
Plan  of  operations  north  of  China, 

26 
Plan  for  Ashantee  War,  263,  296 
Pontoon,  Infantry,  bridge  at  Taku 

Forts,  51 
Poo-too,  island  of,  14 
Pope,  General,  defeated,  122 
Porcelain    tower     of    Nankin    de- 
stroyed, 97 
Portage,  crossing  a,  197 
Potomac  River,  cross,  130 
Prah,  Ashantees  cross,  259 
Prahsu-Koomasee  Road,  314 
Prahsu,  319 

Bridge,  320 
Prince  Arthur's  landing,  187 
Prince  Consort's  death,   108 
Prisoners  made  by  Chinese,  47 

English,  released,  80 
Probyn,  Major,  66 

Regiment,  68,  69 
Proclamation  I  sent  to  Fort  Garry, 

202 
Prophets  of  evil   about  Ashantee, 

273.  275 
Public    Works    Department,    men 

employed  by,  192 
Purchase  System,  abolition  of,  235 

R 

Radical,  I  am  regarded  as  a,  248 
Rain  and  thunder  at  Taku,  35 
Rain,  incessant  during  preparations 

at  Thunder  Bay,  195 
Rait,  Capt.  A.,  293 
Rank  and  file,  our,  238 

Their  opinions  of  their  of&cers, 

238 
Rappahannock,  Gen.  Pope  defeated 

at,  122 
Rat  Portage,  181,  206 


381 


INDEX 


Reconnaissances  made  by  me,  25, 

.  29,  43.  S3.  56 
Red  River  Expedition,  165 

Rebellion  favoured  by  the  Catho- 
lic bishop  and  his  priests,  166, 
167 
Expedition  force,  composed    of, 

174 
Settlement,  181 

Expedition,  cost  little,  222,  223 
Return  from,  224 
Regiment  employed  on  Gold  Coast, 

313 
Reserve  army,  denounced  by    old 
officers,  237,  238 
Necessity  for,  229 
Richmond,  crowded  state  of,  132 
Ridgeway,  MiUtia  fight  with  Fenians 

at,  159 
Riel,  the  half-breed,  169,  172 
Escaped  from  Fort  Garry,  220 
His  subsequent  fate,  221 
Riviere  de  Loup,  1 1 1 
Roads,  in  North  China,  76 
Road  to  Koomassee,  259,  311 
Roberts,  the  American  missionary, 

94 
Rogers,  Ensign,  at  Taku  Forts,  35 
Ross,  Colonel  R.,  7 
Royal  Engineers,  311,  319 
School  at  Chatham,  312 
Rupert's  Land,  Prince,  165 
Russell,  Sir  B.,  283,  304 


Sang-ko-lin-sin,  letters  from  him  to 
the  emperor,  28,  79 

Sault,  Ste.  Marie,  184 

Scott,  Mr.,  the  surveyor,  shot  by 
Rial's  order,  172,  173 

Sedan,  battle  of,  news  of  h  received, 
199,  227 

Selection,      principle      of,      estab- 
lished, 255 
Of  officers  for  Ashantee,  276' 

Selected  officers  and  troops,  315 

Shanghai,  reach,   16,  17 

Shebandowan,  Lake,  177,  179 

•  -  Road  to,  182,  189 

Sierra  Leone,  285 

Sin-Ho,  20 

Sketching  ground,  45,  56 

Slavery  on  West  Coast,  288 

Slidell  &  Mason,  103 

Smugglers  on  Lower  Potomac,  125 


Soldier's  Pocket  Book  not  liked  in 

High  Quarters,  226 
Soo-chow,  Ho  asks  us  to  take  it  for 
the  emperor,  17 
Its  loot,  95 
Southern  kindness,  131 

Soldiers,  hardships   endured  by, 

134 
People,  one  felt  drawn  to  them, 

138 
Army,  absence  of  all  show,  138 
Spies,  Fantee,  312 
Start  for  Fort  Garry,  193 
Staunton  in  Shenandoah  Valley,  1 34 
Staveley,     General,     to     command 

division  at  Tientsin,  87 
Stone  Fort,  215 

Expedition  reached,  217 
Stonewall  Jackson,   122,    123,   138, 

139.  140 
Storming  Taku  Forts,  33,  34 
Strathcona,    Lord,    my    travelling 

companion,  215 
Superior,  Lake,  176,  181 

Basin,  182 
Surf  on  Gold  Coast,  286 

Noise  of,  during  fever,  308 
Surveying  party,  56 
Sutton,  Brigadier,  landing  at  Peh- 

tang,  23 
Swinhoe,  Mr.,  56 
Sydney,  Cape  Breton,  107 


Tache,  Bishop,  218 
Tai-ping,  3 

Rebellion,  94 

Smoking  and  opium  prohibited, 
96 
Taku  Forts  taken,  52 
Talbot,  Colonel  the  Hon.  Thomas. 
Talienwan  Bay,  19,  20 

Army  lands  at,  18 

Quits,  20 
Tankoo,  taking  of,  29 
Tartar  Cavalry,  69 
Teetotal  expedition  to  Red  River, 

177 
Temple  of  the  Earth,  81 
Tents  not  used  during  Expedition, 

199 
Thetis  frigate,  Germany's  first  ship 

of  war,  9 1 
Thorold  camp,  162 
Thunder  Bay,  177,  181,  187 

Storms  there,  192 


382 


INDEX 


Tientsin,  55    "' 

To  be  held  by  us  during  winter,  83 

Garrison  for,  86 

Garrison,  Sir  Hope  leaves,  87 
Tienwan,  3 

Claimed  to  be  Christ's  brother,  95 

The,  94 
Tinghai,  12 

Tokio,  formerly  Geddo,  92 
Toronto   to   Fort   Garry,   distance, 

181 
Tortoise,  emblem  of,  67 
Transport,  our  Chinese  drivers  bolt, 

56,  57 
Trent  affairs,  loi,  102 
Tycoon,  89 
Dethroned,  90 

U 

Underground  passage  to  Virginia, 

125 
Universal  Military  Service,  229 
Unpreparedness  for  war,  our  fatal, 

228 

V 

Volunteer  force  in  1871  shot  badly, 

230 
Voyage  up  river  to  Hankow,  97 
To  America,  105 

W 

Sir  J.  Wade,  67 

Meets  China's  Commander  out- 
side Pekin,  80 
Walker,  Colonel,  64,  65 
War  Office,  a  stagnant  pool,  240 
Washington  family  army,  no 
Waterproof  coats  in  Japan,  92 


Wauchope,  Colonel  A.,  314 
Welland  Canal,   157,  162 
Wellington,   Duke  of,  letter  to  Sir 
J.  Burgoyne,  232 
Answer  to  Colonel  Airey,  244 
West  India  Regiment,  317 
William,  Sir  Fenwick,  no 
Wilmot,  Lieutenant,  killed,  304 
Winchester,    General    Lee's   head- 
quarters, 135 
Winnipeg,  Province  of,  165 
River,  181,  1S3 
Lake,  176,  181,  215 
Descent  of,  212 
Basin,  182 
Village  of,  219 
Withdrawal     of    all     troops     from 

Canada,  221 
Wood,  Sir  Evelyn,  283 
Woods,  Lake  of,  181 

Stormy  weather  on,  205 
Lose  our  way  amidst  its  islands, 
205 
Woolwich,       embark      there      for 

Canada,  104 
Writing,  Chinese  proud  of  their,  99 


Yaconeens,  Japanese,  93 
Yangtse-Kiang,  voyage  up,  97 
Yedda,  89,  92 

Ride  to,  92 

Life  there  in  i860,  93 
Yeomanry  in  1871,  230 
Yokohama,  89 
Yuen-ming-Yuen  Palace,  76,  jj 

To  be  destroyed  to  mark  horror 
of  barbarities,  83 
Yung-Leang  Canal,  68,  72 


383 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


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